Scorpion's Demise
by DogeOfWar
Summary: This is a sequel to nobody102's great work - Scorpion's Disciple, which is a rational fanfic on Naruto. This sequel takes place a couple or so years after the events depicted in Disciple. It deals with Naruto's quest to find Neji and the plans of Sasori, Kages, and other parties that unfold around him. It's a semi-rational fanfic exploring strategic thinking in the world of Naruto.
1. Author's Note

**Author's Note**

Hey everyone. Scorpion's Demise is my first story on fanfiction-net, hope you'll enjoy it :)

It is a continuation of nobody102's great work - Scorpion's Disciple, which is a rational fanfic on Naruto. If you're not familiar with it, go read it, it's awesome.

If you are, this fanfic takes place a couple or so years after the events depicted in Disciple.

All of the original plot is considered canon, with the exception of the last battle with Akatsuki, as depicted in the final summary chapter of Disciple (since it does not exactly fit well with my plans and style).

A note concerning genre: this is generally what I like to call "clever literature" as opposed to true "rational literature". I don't promise before hand that all conundrums would be completely solvable by the reader, but the piece will deal heavily with rationality, mental strategy and similar themes.

Enjoy.


	2. Prologue

**Prologue**

Only _twenty seven_.

The better part of three years had passed since the disciple and his master turned away from the battlefield, not visiting the Hidden Leaf ever since. The artist of the red sands, his plans foiled, his nemesis sealed away by the Kage and Sanin duo, and his existence exposed (though to a small audience), had resolved to seclude himself at a convenient locale and muse upon his art.

This small country fit his needs as perfectly as the joints on a generic doll. As one by one the advantages of the region came to mind, Sasori could practically hear the pieces of his plan clicking firmly into place. Lumber was abound here, and was already stockpiled for smithing and woodwork purposes, clearly designed to feed the efforts of the once growing legion of local Shinobi. The entire operation was concealed and hidden, most infrastructure buried in the subterrain. And the corpses… so many intriguing cadavers, it was a wonder the artist could get any work done.

Indeed, the former Village Hidden by Sound was a prime location. After the news of Orochimaru's downfall had left Konoha, infighting and local squabbles spread like wildfire in the Hidden Sound, and the country was suspected to remain in turmoil for generations to come. All of that had changed when Leader arrived.

Obviously enough, Pein could not allow the HQ of one of his group's bitter rivals to remain intact. Orochimaru, being a former member of the organization, was undoubtedly keeping ample intelligence on Akatsuki, which Leader could not have let leak. Plus, immersed in his god complex as he is, Pein was not one to let such obvious transgressions go unpunished.

So as the harbinger of dawn descended upon the hidden village, all bickering and civil wars were snuffed out like a waning candle under a thundering rain. Sasori knew better than to set up his base in the Sound immediately afterwards, so he let the situation simmer down for a few months. But when the time came, he left his student and his trusted spy behind and sat there to resume his work.

The work, this time around, was three-fold. Firstly, he needed to restore his collection. The Irony of doing so under the Snake Sanin's former roof was not lost on him. But the resources were there: both raw materials and the scattered remains of many of Orochimaru's followers, who made for interesting human puppets. And still, after all this time, he only managed to produce _twenty seven_ A-grade quality models. How tiresome.

The second facet of his reconstruction was the continuing struggle to reestablish his spy network, as parts of it were seized by Akatsuki, and others not trustworthy enough to reveal to which that he was, in fact, very much alive.

And lastly, the third part of the plan: Orochimaru. The white serpent was sealed away by his former master and comrade, but Sasori was not foolish enough to believe that was that. Orochimaru surely had a contingency in place. Being partners all those years in Akatsuki, Sasori knew the workings of that reptile's mind better than, perhaps, anyone. And he knew for a fact that the Sanin (for all his flaws) was never truly caught off guard. So, he decided to spend some of his time scouring the base for clues on his old partner's plans and techniques.

All things considered, he was making sluggish-yet-rewarding progress. Slow and steady wins the race, the artist supposed. All of this, however, was to be put to a halt. His contacts in Konoha have assured him that the so called "Naruto Retrieval Team" was reaching the end of its training, and as soon as the smallest whisper of his student's whereabouts were to be heard, they will be ready to mobilize.

This was a hiccup Sasori could not afford. And so, by a fickle twist of fate, master and disciple were to be reunited yet again.


	3. Chapter 1 - Cold Hard Steel

**Chapter I – Cold Hard Steel**

Sasori's return was not at all what Naruto had expected. No acknowledgements of time passed, no reaction to the obvious changes in his student's appearance, not even a bland "how do you do?". The only greeting Sasori had given his disciple was a demonstration of his art, which, as always, included a fair amount of bloodshed.

As he did every day, Naruto was sitting in a lotus position on the wooden, cold floors of the Dojo. His eyes closed, he concentrated. Not gathering chakra, not accessing his mindscape, just concentrating. The trio of other students were meditating as well, their weapons laid on the ground before them, forming along with the seated Naruto a semi-circle in front of their master. A harsh, middle-aged and respectable Samurai.

Yes, a Samurai. Before leaving Naruto and Kabuto and withdrawing to who knows where, the Scorpion had stashed them both in the Land of Iron. A neutral nation, usually hostile towards foreign Shinobi, the country made for a promising hideout. At least, that was what Naruto thought was his master's motivation. As it turns out, there were quite the number of them.

Sasori had arranged for his disciple to start training at a remote Samurai Dojo, were only clan members of the local master (two nephews and a grandson) were allowed to train. At first, Naruto was surprised. Reluctant, even. Yet mastery of the Samurai arts proved crucial for the blonde's schooling as a puppeteer.

Firstly, Samurai were experts in chakra shape manipulation, forming swords, deflecting throwing weapons, and blocking ninja blades with their inner energy. This allowed Naruto to create and recreate chakra strings with ease, as well as have better control of their length and density.

Secondly, mastering the Katana had worked wonders on Naruto's fingers. The core muscles were strengthened, their flexibility enhanced, and a certain stability took over them… a calm sturdiness that could not be achieved through dexterity alone.

And lastly, there were some intellectual benefits. Samurai operated in squads, so basic unit tactics were covered and discussed in the Dojo. Naruto quickly understood how some of these, at least theoretically, could be used in combat with multiple puppets. The most basic ones were already shown to him by Sasori himself, back in Konoha.

Naruto came to appreciate his Samurai master and fellow students, and also the added values of discipline and focus that they shared with him. In combat, a single Samurai was almost always outmatched by a skilled Shinobi, and therefore many of them died, frequently. This has resulted in a philosophy that was at best passive or accepting towards death, and at worst celebrating it. Odd, but serene.

The Uzumaki however could not truly connect with his Samurai peers, as he had to hide not only his past from them, but also his present. The training he had done with his puppets, the modifications he attempted to add to them, the constant reading of the materials his true master had left for him… and of course, his sessions with Kabuto.

Ah, Kabuto. His reaction to Sasori's departure was levelled to say the least. Naruto could not, for the life of him, tell whether Kabuto was already accustomed to such interactions, or whether he genuinely didn't care. The spy's demeanor was so slick, so smooth, that it seemed as though any emotional hardship just brushed against him, sliding off his polished psyche like raindrops over leather.

During their stay in the Land of Iron, Kabuto situated himself within a shrine for the dead, located atop a hill a few miles from the Dojo. Whenever Naruto came by to see him, he was poking around some corpse or another dug up from the cemetery. One of the graves, undoubtedly belonging to some wealthy individual, had a stone mausoleum adjacent to it. Kabuto was inside, most of the time, keeping the heavy marble door shut and focusing on his work… whatever it was.

Naruto would go to the shrine, supposedly to pray, every couple of days. Once there he continued his medical nin training, but also took to studying spycraft and deception, the only things Naruto had no doubt that Kabuto was better at than Sasori.

Those lessons were tiresome and immensely intriguing. At their first year in that snowy land, Kabuto showed him the ropes on basic spying skills. Reading and controlling facial expressions, fundamental interrogation tactics, setting up dead drops and avoiding unnecessary attention. But when the fourteenth month had passed and Kabuto deemed his student ready, he let go of the technical parts of the training and focused on what he explained was the main idea behind Shinobi psychology.

Metacognition.

Thinking about thinking. Understanding thinking. Strategizing thinking. Weaponizing thinking.

The idea was present in Naruto's life before, Sasori himself taught him how to lie using a kernel of truth, as to appear truthful not by acting out honest behavior perfectly, but by letting one's subconscious guide his body accordingly. Naruto at the time, however, was not aware that this was what he was doing. And when dealing with metacognition, awareness is the entire point.

Naruto liked the methods Kabuto had to offer, as they reminded him of the mindset he used to have when pulling pranks in the old village. But Kabuto kept remarking how Naruto was not able to generalize what he was taught, and how he probably didn't get it.

Naruto objected profusely. He was allowed to dispute his teacher every once in a while by raising his hand and explaining his concerns. To avoid a long, tedious debate, Kabuto usually put on one of his placid smiles and moved forward with the material.

This time, however, he didn't. He merely replied "we'll see", and moved to the anatomy portion of their session. Several months later, Kabuto was waiting for Naruto in the shrine itself, outside the mausoleum. Leaning against one of the poles holding the temple's bells, he smirked sheepishly when Naruto arrived. Instead of heading back to the graveyard and starting the lesson with his usual questions: how does Naruto feel, what happened in the Dojo today, had Naruto had any thoughts on the previous lesson… Kabuto merely gave the Jinchuriki a small scroll to examine.

The scroll contained ample data organized into a few elongated charts. It counted something that had to do with their sessions against some other variable. After Naruto appeared puzzled for a while, Kabuto broke the silence. "The numbers represent the quantity of objections you gave me each session, counted by the number of times you raised your hand."

"-And the other thing?" the blonde replied with annoyance. Kabuto grinned again. "It marks whether or not your Samurai tutor gave you a speech that day". Naruto was taken aback. Every once in a while, the old master would attempt to inspire his students by reminding them of some Samurai values, and of the honors and merits of straight-forward discipline and hard work. The notions were always very dogmatic, but they also made a lot of sense. However, if this document was correct…

"You see, Naruto-kun? The more eager you were listening to that aging Samurai, the more he got through to you, and the less flexible your thoughts had become. Whenever we talked of metacognition, you were biased against uncertainty or the fluid lack of backbone my methods have to offer. I suspect that your closed-minded colleagues may have rubbed off on you."

At first, Naruto wanted to object again, his hand rising almost reflexively as he pouted. But then he understood that _this_ sentiment, the one that just flew through his brain, was a case resting example. Kabuto was right, he was biased. From then on, Naruto made a habit of turning off his focus seal whenever the honored Sensei started preaching Bushido again.

But more than that, Naruto got the point: one had to keep scrutinizing one's thoughts, one's thoughts on one's thoughts, and so on and so on. Thus gaining a deeper understanding of the workings of his mind, and minds in general. That was what made for effective metacognition, which could be translated into effective techniques. Like gathering intel before a fight, one cannot truly battle in the field of human interaction without a fair amount of situational awareness. And that idea was embodied in everything Kabuto taught.

All of this was mentally exhausting work. Naruto began spending more and more time in his mindscape just so he could arrange his thoughts properly, not to mention make sense of the mind games Kabuto was playing with him. Kabuto always won, though. As a treat however, the spy worked with Naruto on more enjoyable stuff as well. They modified anti-Shinobi techniques the Samurai used with their knowledge of anatomy, and even managed to develop a new, powerful Jutsu together. Naruto had no idea that nerdy-old-Kabuto could be excited by such ventures.

And Naruto needed to enjoy himself. To nurture his passion again. As time went by, the Uzumaki was ground to dust. Not only because of his harsh training, but also because he came across a dreadfully daunting obstacle: the learning curve.

Back in Konoha, Naruto's skills practically exploded. He was getting better so fast, there was almost no one around him who did not notice. In fact, his meteoric rise drew too much attention, which lead the whole situation with the Third to deteriorate. But now, he had reached an impasse of sorts. He was getting undoubtedly better, but not unbeatable, as he would have been were he to advance at the same pace as before.

This was obvious in retrospect, of course, but the blonde did not think of such trifles back then. At the present, he was able to fully manipulate only four puppets at once. The depth of dexterity and attention advanced puppeteering required was nothing like what he had to do before. Inspired by his training with the Bokken, Naruto developed a technique that enabled him to have greater focus on a single puppet at a time, while the others operated on a more-than-acceptable level. His thumb leading the way, he used it in conjunction with one of his other fingers to control the chosen doll with extreme precision, while the remaining digits took care of the other puppets like they normally would.

His chakra control wasn't growing as fast as it used to either, and medical nin training had come to have more to do with anatomy and maintaining medical chakra than anything else. This was harsh on the teen, as even if he knew for a fact it will all be worthwhile eventually, he had to feel there was a reason he chose Sasori. And he had to feel it now.

But his doubts were cut short when the puppet master returned. On that fateful morning, the Students were sitting at the Dojo, waiting for their Sensei to speak. The wind blew harshly outside the building, smashing snowflakes against the wooden walls. As the old Samurai drew a short breath and attempted to begin his lecture, the slidedoors opened swiftly, letting snowy gusts of air barge violently into the arena.

In the doorway, a short silhouette stood, its back turned against the rising sun. A boy, striking red hair, minimal coats to his skin, and the empty expression of glazed apathy slung upon his face. All the students were startled. The three clan members feared the unsettling nature of the boy's approach, and Naruto was alarmed as well, since he quickly understood that if Sasori had shown these strangers his true form, this will surely end badly.

The elder nephew rose, lifting his Dai-Katana from the floor as he marched. Before even taking the third step, a sharp, elongated blade rose from beneath him, splitting a creaking floorboard into splinters. The blade went through the trainee's abdomen, then retracted. The nephew let go of his sword and fell to his knees, black blood spilling from his wounded stomach. The two other students quickly rose to action, but the Scorpion had already flung a kunai at each of them. They blocked, the second nephew with the scabbard of his own sword, and the grandson with the dull end of his Naginata. Unfortunately, the two kunai were explosive ones, of Naruto's old design. As soon as the knives were intercepted, they blew up, tearing through wood and flesh like old, crumbling newspaper.

Naruto was pushed back and rolled to his feet, too shocked to react properly. The Samurai master (who witnessed the entire ordeal with remarkable patience) did not reach for any weapon, but instead rushed to climb the wooden stairs, leading to the second-floor dais which allowed visitors to observe the main arena from above. He knew full well he was outmatched.

As the old warrior ran along the dais, one of the paper windows was torn open, and a clinking wooden puppet peered through the fresh hole to intercept him. The Sensei reacted, again, with amazing focus. Paying no regard to the disturbing humanoid head and the jittering of its teeth, he dodged the incoming arm, which opened to reveal a kunai-sized blade. The Samurai then proceeded to grab the sharp blade with his bare hands, tearing it off the puppet as it wounded his own palm. He turned to gain momentum, and stuck the stolen blade into one of the puppet's joints, skewering it against the wall. With an artful spring, he then jumped through the torn window, escaping the Dojo.

Sasori did not even bother to pursue. The blade the elder Samurai has touched was obviously poisoned. Surely enough, after a moment of silence had passed between the Scorpion and his disciple, a loud cough was heard, carried in by the wind. Then a slip, and a thump, the unmistakable sound of a body hitting the snowy earth.

"Hello" Sasori said. His voice the same as ever.

At that particular moment, Naruto was angry. He came to be fond of these people, and his true master, who had disappeared on him for the better part of three years, has marred his return with this… bloodshed. Naruto chose Sasori for a reason. He is, or at least was, Naruto's closest friend. As he peered at the artist's face, Naruto tried his best not to convey any resentment. He could feel the Kyubi in the back of his mind, fanning his emotional flames. "It's about time we tell him off, kid" the fox growled. "This has gone on long enough."

For a second, Naruto agreed, and this fleeting shot of confirmation was enough for the Nine Tails' Youki to start flowing through his veins. "Stop it fox!" Naruto called in his thoughts, yet the ire kept glowing. "Kyubi, enough!" … no reply but a rising sense of wrath. Naruto was a coat of chakra away from tearing into his beloved master. "Kurama!"

The anger subsided.

The Jinchuriki and his prisoner were on different terms, nowadays. As the years went by, Naruto was placed in several life-threatening situations. Some of them already in Konoha, some here in the frozen Iron. And the Nine Tails had saved him, time and time again. The official party line was that the fox was trying to establish a mutually beneficial relationship, and so assisted his jailer… but why?

If Naruto were to die, the Kyubi will dissipate, his chakra no longer contained and the seal preventing him from being released in his foxy form. But after some time, months, years, even decades, the essence of the Kyubi will coalesce into a physical being yet again, and the immortal demon shall be free. Why not let his host die, then?

Because he needed something done, Naruto realized, and he needed it done soon. Kurama had an agenda, and it was of a time sensitive nature. Sensitive, it would seem, to the point that the fox couldn't risk his Youki scattering and himself returning only in a few decades or so.

After many talks the two shared inside Naruto's mindscape, regarding chakra, techniques, or other people, the fox somehow deduced Naruto understood this… notion about his goals. And gradually, a friendlier relationship had flowered. Although warmer, it was still painted by that dark undertone that accompanied ulterior motives, but it was friendlier nevertheless.

Naruto relaxed, and the artist approached him carefully. "How have you been?" he asked. Even this fake show of compassion was a great offering when it came to Sasori. So in return, Naruto smiled and let his resentment float away, slowly disappearing from his memory.

 _– Break –_

Every three days or so, a villager came by the remote Dojo, carrying food and general supplies. Though he was just there the night before Sasori's arrival, if they were to err on the side of caution the three Shinobi had two days to clean the area of their presence and leave.

The plan was simple. Sasori brought with him a storage scroll containing the body of an adolescent similar to his disciple. He was tall and well built, with sharp features and bright blonde hair. Kabuto will prepare the cadaver, performing modifying surgery to make it appear as identical to Naruto as possible, even cutting its hair to match the disciple's hairdo. They will then burn down the Dojo with the bodies inside, and will stage the event to look like a band of local Shinobi had engaged in some practical axe-grinding during the Dojo's training hours. Nobody knew who Naruto was around here, and with Kabuto going as far as shaping the corpse's hair correctly as not to allow for suspicious burn patterns, no one will be the wiser.

These preparations have taken most of the first day, and by the second morning Naruto had grown more and more curious as to the reason behind his master's return. When the Dojo was almost ready to be lit, Sasori spoke.

"I came here to give you something, Naruto." He said, cocking his head nonchalantly.

"Give me something?" Naruto asked with a hint of giddiness in his voice.

Sasori pulled out a tightly rolled scroll and handed it to his student. As Naruto read the report, his heart started racing, and it took him great amounts of self-control to sooth his inner turmoil. It was about Neji.

Apparently, the genius Hyuga had fled captivity, and was heading towards the Fire Land's border with the Land of Grass.

Shit. Naruto never imagined it would happen so quickly. "C-can I go?" he whispered, looking up at the young form of his red headed master. "You must", answered the Scorpion.

After a few moments of deep thought and some encouragement from Kurama, Naruto was resolute to leave this land. He was ready to get up when Sasori motioned him to halt. "Kabuto, would you please survey the surroundings one more time before we set this place aflame?" asked the master. "Of course" Kabuto replied.

Left alone, Sasori gazed sternly at his disciple before opening his mouth to speak again. "There's a reason I gave you this information, Naruto."

"So I can fulfill my promise" said the blonde decisively.

"No, not this time." Sasori answered. His body was unnaturally still, and without any motion, Naruto could hear a compartment click open in his master's chest. The Scorpion moved his arm mechanically, and whatever was in that mysterious compartment slowly slipped out and fell onto his wooden palm. Naruto could see the convoluted network of chakra strings emanating from the tubular object, slightly protruding from Sasori's garments.

"This" the artist of the red sands declared, "is me."

Naruto looked perplexed.

"I'm a puppet Naruto, yet I have no puppeteer. I control myself, and therefore I must live somewhere within this wooden coil."

"-But I thought…" Naruto said in his characteristically confused voice, "that you were sealed to your body, and that's why you know so much about sealing."

Sasori nearly smiled. "If I were sealed _inside_ it" he continued with a reprimanding tone, "on the event it were to be destroyed, so would I, and I would not be able to transfer my mind to a different host."

It made sense to Naruto, but to think that Sasori's self was somehow preserved it this tube of bulging biomass was… too surreal. "Why are you showing me this?" asked the Uzumaki, "not to be rude, but it seems to be a very important secret." Sasori had divulged much to his student over the years, including some sensitive information about his puppets, or about how the center of his body's mechanisms laid within his stomach, but this…

"Indeed." The Scorpion replied, "not even Kabuto knows about this."

"I am showing it to you so you'll understand, Naruto. Eventually, you too must cut your mortal cords, and give birth to a true form of art."

Sasori then explained a bit about the process of creating that tube, and how he basically killed himself so he could gain such an "elegant variant of immortality". Naruto was confused. He wanted to inquire more about the mechanisms of that… thing, and to get a better grasp of his teacher's vague statement. There were so many questions… Did Sasori wish to make him a puppet as well?

"Don't be an idiot" Kurama called inside his head. "If he kills you, I'll be gone, and that's a very big waste. He can't turn you into some stupid toy like that."

Before he could tell Kyubi off or ask Sasori anything, Kabuto was already back at the door.

 _This could wait, I presume_ , Naruto thought as he got up to his feet. _Neji's death couldn't._


	4. Chapter 2 - Retrieval

**Chapter II – Retrieval**

Yamanaka Ino's feet hit every branch perfectly. She leaped so gracefully behind the remaining members of her team that they practically forgot she was there. Seems fitting, the girl supposed.

Something about this mission was ungraspable. Perhaps it was hard for her to believe it will finally happen, that they will finally get Uzumaki Naruto. Yet Ino wasn't excited, nervous or in any way otherwise engaged. She felt… disconnected.

So much had happened since the team was formed. At first she found training with Sasuke and Shino thrilling, as she was still eager to prove her mettle as a young Kunoichi. But as time went by, her resolution was soiled by one catastrophe after the other.

First, there was Sakura. The two were growing closer together with each passing day, as the mission to bring back the loud Uzumaki gave them some sentiments to share, and the waning of their obsession with Sasuke had made thin the walls between them. But for all their comradery, their rivalry had grown even more intense.

Sakura's excellent chakra control made her a perfect fit to be a medical nin, as both Ino and Naruto thought she should become. Instead, not wanting to take a supporting back-of-the-stage role, the pink haired ninja chose to pursue a mastery of Genjutsu. Genjutsu, the very Mon of the Yamanaka banner. The thing that Ino always had and Sakura didn't. And her friend was extremely good at it, too.

As Ino trained with her clan members, Sakura approached the now team-less Yuuhi Kurenai, besieging the Jonin to take her as her apprentice. Kurenai hesitated, but worn down by Sakura's unrelenting tenacity, she eventually conceded.

And so, Haruno Sakura had climbed up the Genjutsu ladder, and had even manage to trap copy-cat Kakashi in a short illusion. Word of this achievement spread quickly throughout the village, and overshadowed anything Ino was able to accomplish. In turn, something in the two's friendship became strained, and Ino (who was no longer in touch with her former team since she was reassigned to the NRT) was growing a tad lonely.

Secondly, there was the incident. The original NRT trained with many Jonins. Kakashi and Jiraya alternated as their main instructors, the Hatake doing most of the heavy lifting. Every once in a while though, they faced other Shinobi in training battles to test their ongoing progress. One of these encounters was with Konoha's duo of green wild beasts.

Maito Guy and Rock Lee tested the team's ability to handle intensive Taijutsu and war-of-attrition type of combat. They're strength and Stamina was astonishing, and the team had nearly lost. But the ever resolute Sasuke, the NRT's official leader, could not simply forfeit.

The Uchiha's rise in skill these past few years was staggering, completely dwarfing Sakura's or any other Shinobi's efforts. In fact, it reminded Ino of Naruto back in the day. Her friendship with Sakura had allowed her to learn more about her former crush, and she became privy to the Uchiha's dark goals. For his incredible skill alone, however, he was the obvious choice to lead the team.

And thus, at the approaching end of their exhausting skirmish, although Sasuke left the forest around their almost identical opponents completely scorched, he was still way off the road to victory. He didn't even retain enough chakra to sustain his Sharingan, now.

As the situation seemed completely lost, however, something in the black-haired teen changed. A vile smirk span across his face and Ino could literally feel his chakra growing. It was stretching like a murky shadow, dark and vast and skewing her sense of the Uchiha's power way out of proportion.

Sasuke stared directly at Lee, a smug tone filling his voice. "That murderer you used to call your rival would have surely finished me off by now." Kiba shot Sasuke a murderous look.

Lee pouted, his features conveying obvious pain. When the silence stretched on uneasily for a second or two, Sasuke continued. "Hell, even that little girl he killed would have done better than you no-talent-hack."

This had done it.

Guy sensed something was wrong, and attempted to call his student off before the situation escalated any further, but Rock Lee was already darting forward with blinding speed. "Sasuke-kun," he replied as he blurred before the Uchiha, "you may be a genius, but with enough hard work, even a-"…

The unmistakable crack of bones echoed through the forest. "Now now" Sasuke said with a grin. He was holding one of Lee's hands in a compromising joint lock while his boot pressed firmly against Lee's lower thigh. That, was unbelievable. Sasuke might have been remarkably swift, but Lee was faster still. In less than a second, he placed the Taijutsu expert in an obvious loosing position.

The battle was concluded, and Guy, who seemed tenser than before, congratulated the team on a job well done. But Sasuke wasn't done yet. The Uchiha stared at Guy's expression, chuckling softly. His hand relaxed, and Lee's body slowly descended towards the coal-black ground. But then, suddenly, Sasuke grabbed the green Shinobi even tighter, crushing his arm and thigh with tremendous strength.

Lee screamed. The entire team was aghast. Maito Guy appeared between his beloved student and the dark haired Uchiha, pushing Sasuke back with an open-palm strike. Sasuke smashed against the trunk of a huge tree and fainted. Lee, on the other hand, was conscious, and writhing in pain. And that was that.

The entire NRT had no idea how serious the situation was until news of Rock Lee's condition had returned. The boy's limbs were damaged beyond repair, and he was forced to quit the life of a Shinobi. Horrible. How could Sasuke do such a thing? And why?

Not long afterwards, the entire squad was summoned to the Hokage's office, Sasuke already present when the rest had arrived. It would seem that somehow, even after this horrific event, the Naruto Retrieval Team would remain intact. And not only that, Sasuke got to keep his position as team leader. This was surprising and maybe even a bit unfair, both Sakura and Ino thought. Shino kept his thoughts to himself, highly perplexed by the situation. But Kiba… Kiba was outraged. As he tore into the Third with blazing words and accusations, he seemed to release the pent-up emotions all of them, with the exception of Sasuke, were feeling.

It did nothing to change the Hokage's mind though, and Kiba ended up quitting the team in protest. Ino was wondering if she should do the same. Even though she remained Sasuke's friend, and considered the event a manifestation of the troubled Uchiha's issues (which surely would have pressed him to find some emotional outlet, eventually)… Sandaime's judgement seemed lacking. He even went as far as to instruct the team not to speak of the event, and covered up Lee's condition as the results of an accident.

While Ino was about to reach a decision, however, something way worse happened to her, shattering her already fragile soul into tiny, invisible smithereens. Her life was in pieces, for her most trusted person, her respected teacher, her beloved father, was gone.

Yamanaka Inoichi was getting more and more involved in S-rank missions as of late, and his daughter was seeing less and less of him. When the news came that her father was injured during a clash with the enemy, and that he fell into a deep coma, Ino was at a loss for words.

He wasn't even dead, exactly. Though the doctors assured Ino her father will never wake up, Sarutobi had instructed the hospital staff to keep his body alive, probably as a sign of respect for the Yamanaka clan.

Ino was devastated, and so she begun neglecting her duties, becoming probably the weakest member of the NRT. And not only that, she always felt alone, mentally detached from both her remaining relatives and her teammates.

But meeting Naruto… the idea still managed to get her a tiny bit excited. She glanced forward at the rest of the NRT, her eyes peering through the holes of her fake Anbu mask. They were all wearing standard issue Anbu attire, with masks to hide their faces from Naruto or anyone else who might recognize them.

Ino's mask was shaped like the face of a sparrow, and she carried an Anbu Wakizashi even though she had no training in the use of one. Sakura was right in front of her, her long pink hair strung up in a ponytail, which bobbed whenever her legs hit a tree branch. Her mask was shaped like a mouse's head, the area around her eyeholes painted pitch black. She wore the symbolic Wakizashi as well.

A little up ahead were Shino and Sasuke. Shino hopped around the team's perimeter, sending insects ahead to warn the NRT of incoming encounters and dangers. His garb included a long, grey coat over ordinary Anbu gear, and a humanoid mask with tiny, thin slots to allow for sight. Come to think of it, Ino had never seen the boy without his pair of dark sunglasses before.

Sasuke was leading the group in an urgent pace. He wore a full black cloak with the hood up, and his features were covered by a smirking fox mask, with red lines adorning the sides of its snout and face. Ino suspected the Uchiha had chosen that particular mask on purpose.

The plan was simple. Step one: bait Naruto with false rumors of Neji's escape. Step two: listen for any chatter on Naruto's activities carefully, and intercept him as soon as he crosses Fire Country borders.

And here they were. Someone was asking about Neji around this region for a while now. He had done it carefully, no doubt, but has managed to threaten Konoha's most reliable and powerful agents in the area. They were closing in on the target now, and preparing for first contact. In all likelihood, this _was_ Uzumaki Naruto.

The question of what the team would do when facing Naruto had plagued Ino and her friends for quite some time now. As to be expected, Sakura and Shino were inclined to negotiate with the blonde, while Sasuke was in favor of a more 'hands-on' approach. It was ultimately decided that since Naruto's attitude and abilities were completely unknown, the team _might_ attempt to converse with him, forgoing the element of surprise in a potential battle for the slim chance of reaching some peaceful resolution. That, however, will only happen should Sasuke deem Naruto to be either harmless, or cooperative.

If the situation would come to that, they would capture him (alive of course) and deliver him to Konoha by force. Yamanaka Ino had a crucial part to play in that scenario. The others will attempt to overwhelm Naruto with their techniques, and then, once immobilized, Ino will use her body switching Jutsu to take control of the Uzumaki's body. The team would then drug the boy using Shino's bugs, and carry him all the way back to the Hidden Leaf.

"Halt!" the Aburame hissed abruptly. The three froze in their tracks, waiting for Shino to explain. "Someone is just… standing there."

 _– Break –_

This, was strange.

Uzumaki Naruto stood at the edge of a forest clearing, inspecting the small beetle-like creature trapped between his fingers. The insect wagged its legs constantly and attempted to flee towards the blonde's fingernails, from which small amounts of chakra were emanating.

Kikkai.

Naruto's mind held a clear snapshot of Shino's insects from back in the day. This one was extremely similar to the Uzumaki's recollection, but did bare some subtle differences. It was slightly bigger, with a tougher shell, to say the least. The coloration had changed as well, it became blander, less conspicuous.

Yet the species itself was undoubtedly Shino's. It appears his bugs changed a bit (and for the better), possibly through deliberate breeding. If the colors were altered on purpose as well, it probably means Shino has taken steps to specialize in stealth. That would be fitting.

But what was the Aburame doing here? Perhaps going after Neji as well?

Naruto had no doubt that if Konoha knew about Neji's probable location, Shino and Kiba would not rest until they hunted the murderer down, even if it meant disobeying the old Hokage. That was the likelier scenario. There was also the possibility, however, that this was some sort of a trap. Sasori had told Naruto before that a special squad was formed back in the Leaf, with the sole purpose of finding him. It may be that Shino… was with them?

The blonde wondered. Approaching the Aburame blindly might prove dangerous. Even if he was here to find Hyuga Neji, his other teammates (whoever they are) might not agree to cooperate with Naruto. On the other hand, attacking Shino or his group right now would be quite reckless, to put it mildly.

And so, Naruto made minimal preparations, and decided to wait. Soon enough, four figures emerged from the opposite side of the clearing, all wearing the garments of Konoha's professional Anbu.

Suspicious.

The four Shinobi stopped immediately, not even getting a good look at Naruto. They were undoubtedly warned by Shino's insects. The team stood motionlessly under the tree line, the shadows of the forest's fringe dancing upon their bleached faces.

Two of them were obviously studying Naruto now, each mask so static it didn't even rise with their breaths. After almost three years, the Uzumaki was indeed different. He grew a lot taller, more so then some of the Anbu that stood in front of him. His old gear was gone as well. The Jinchuriki now wore a dark orange coat, with elongated sleeves, and a slack hood heaved upon his head. Under it, his hair was cut shorter, and his eyes looked more placid, yet stern. A large scroll was hoisted on his back, and a black scarf and shirt (with a red Whirlpool insignia on its center) adorned the front of his form.

 _They're patient_ , Naruto thought. The teen drew a long breath, raised his head and closed his eyes before he spoke. He didn't want to look at any of his opponents directly, as to not let them know he was guessing.

"You seem to have forgotten a lot about me Shino" the Uzumaki called. "With my ears, I overheard your bugs chirping from a mile away. Now… where the hell is Neji?"

As soon as he finished the sentence, Naruto crushed the small Kikkai within his fist. The Anbu with the human-like mask twitched.

Shino.

"Naruto," the Aburame said calmly, "Neji-san is not here. Why is that? Because we came here to get you, and not him." This was definitely Shino. But a trap? That made absolutely no sense. Naruto gazed at his opponents vigorously, smiling to feign amusement. Two of the four were female. Sakura and Ino, perchance? He could not tell, but if Ino was here, they were definitely going to use her Genjutsu to capture him. "I guess I'm done playing nice" said the blonde under his breath.

Naruto's bandaged arms slid from under his sleeves, and as he was about to form his first seal, the unmistakable voice of an Uchiha echoed through the clearing. "Naruto," said the fox-masked Anbu wryly, "Neji is back in Konoha. You should come there with us, that would make things a lot easier."

Sasuke and Naruto stared down each other's faces for a while, both slowly retreating into their cloaks. They knew each other well enough to tell that the blonde was about to refuse. Naruto could predict how this is going to go, Sasuke would charge him with a barrage of well-timed Taijutsu, thinking Naruto would have to withdraw. This would give the rest of the team the opportunity to encircle him, and after they'll bombard the blonde with everything they've got, Ino will move to strike.

Naruto was not about to let that happen. With the swiftness of a Samurai unsheathing his sword, the Uzumaki tensed up his fingers and formed dense and flexible chakra cords. Sasuke was already on the move. He flew towards Naruto like a speeding bullet, just waiting to be caught in the puppeteer's trap.

But instead of throwing a fist, Sasuke curved his arm and threw off his mask. He grinned, and stared at Naruto straight in the eye. His own eyes, however, were the shade of blood red.

Fuck.

In a moment, the world was gone. Eerie pools of blackness filled Naruto's field of vision, and his head started to spin. As he came to, he was in the clearing no longer.

An abandoned Dojo, dark and dusty from lack of use, stretched beneath his folded knees. The wooden frame of the building ached with the burden of the snowy winds that raged outside, making the space feel even more hollow. To his sides were twin staircases, leading up to a second story dais, and to his back a dim corridor, the end of which way too dingy to be seen.

Naruto's mindscape.

Sasuke was standing in front of the closed slidedoors, looking rather dazed. "A training room?" he mumbled.

Naruto was horrified. No one had just stepped into his mindscape uninvited before. _Relax_ , the teen told himself, gradually cementing his will. This was _his_ mindscape. Here he was practically Kami, which meant he literally owned the battlefield. Plus, there's no telling what would happen if Ino were to use her Genjutsu on him while Sasuke was here, so he was generally safe, for now.

Yet his heartrate did not subside so easily. And the sheer biological panic was enough, apparently, to poke the proverbial bear.

The shadowed hall behind the blonde started glowing a warm, fiery orange. Through the fleeting lights a sealed gate was seen, made of hefty bars of stone and iron. The slow hiss of boiling water was heard, as evaporating crimson liquids emerged from between the creaking floors, forming a bubbly red mass. It took the shape of a fox's head, looming formidably above the sitting Uzumaki.

Naruto rose, looking at his prisoner with rehearsed apathy. He was about to question the fox when he suddenly noticed Sasuke standing right next to him, utterly unfazed.

"I can see it now" said the Uchiha, "your hidden source of power… who would have thought." Naruto stared at Sasuke in disbelief, his hands motioning for his adversary to withdraw. "To think you had this… _thing_ inside you."

"Right, the Uchiha bastard" the Kyubi replied, barely moving his teeth. "My, how you've grown." He was considering what to say next, Naruto saw. Contemplation was a weird color on the tailed beast. "Being able to see me, and stand here… so that's the power of your cursed clan huh?"

"It seems this isn't the first time you witnessed the Sharingan" Sasuke retorted with a smirk, "You must be the Ninetails, then?"

A pause. This was Naruto's first chance to inspect his former teammate. He was slightly taller than the blonde, and his hair grew much longer, shading the sharp countenance upon his face. His eyes gleamed with the Blood Limit's cardinal red, three small obsidian dots now stretching around each pupil.

The fox looked as though he was about to answer, but Naruto simply shook his head. There's no need to give Sasuke any more information. At the sight of this, the irritated Uchiha grabbed hold of the tip of Kurama's nose, and twisted it violently. The orange bubbling mound burst in elegant succession, the volley creating a gust of wind that shook the Dojo ceiling to floor.

Shit. Sasuke wasn't supposed to be able to do this, not if Naruto did not want him to. Although there was always mockery in Sasori's voice when he spoke of this, the blonde was beginning to understand Orochimaru's obsession with these eyes.

Naruto had to think quickly. He could not retreat into his mindscape to deliberate this, being already in it. And the Kyubi was gone, too. But wait. The Uchiha looked confused when he first got here, Naruto recalled. This meant…

The Uzumaki sighed audibly. He took a few steps back and spread his arms far and wide. The ground beneath the Dojo shook, and a pillar of black earth erupted beneath the blonde, raising him high above his opponent. When the pillar froze, simmering liquid embers begun to droop from under Naruto's fingernails. His hands were spread far enough apart for the cinders to spill onto the Dojo floor, and from the boiling puddles emerged fiery ghosts, taking the shapes of beastly skulls… foxes, wolves, even a few dogs.

The burning apparitions swirled around the room and hastened towards Sasuke, their wavy whiskers beaming with an eerie light. Naruto got creative, every once in a while.

The Uchiha evaded the ghosts elegantly, keeping his eyes fixed on his target. _Think hard about what you're going to say_ , Naruto thought. He knew that with his Sharingan, Sasuke would probably be able to spot any obvious lies.

"You can't take me here, Sasuke-kun" the blonde called in mock admiration. "I control every last piece of my mind, and if we were to clash here… who knows what will happen to you."

He wasn't technically lying. If Sasuke was as surprised as Naruto suspected when they both came to, he had no idea how mindscapes worked. He probably never even heard the term before. If Naruto were to convince the Uchiha this was a bad idea, Sasuke would probably relent.

"Don't think too highly of yourself, fox-boy" the black Shinobi replied.

"Oh, _Sasuke-kun_ " Naruto said in an ominous tone. The Uchiha's name was uttered both by him and by the giant demon that formed to his back, the dais floors and railings twisting to form an infernal grin, made completely of parts of the Dojo itself. Naruto's eyes opened wildly… flushing a deep, luminous red.

Sasuke finally looked concerned. Naruto's features became more and more foxy, not just to scare the Uchiha away, but to make it harder for his eyes to read the blonde's facial expressions. The blonde highly doubted anyone had trained Sasuke in detecting animal deception.

The floorboards around Sasuke caught fire, and as they splattered from heat and flame, they assembled into a giant palm. "This is it for you, Uchiha" Naruto declared. He motioned his hand into a fist while the massive burning pile mimicked him with absolute precision. Smack.

He was staring at Sasuke again. The sun shone through the clearing's brunches, and the rest of the phony Anbu were standing firmly in their place. Sasuke had conceded, and Naruto noticed he was standing at the exact same spot he landed in before the fight. So the entire charge was an illusion as well. Creepy.

"Time to move" Naruto whispered, smiling ear to ear. A raven caw split the air from above the Anbu squad, announcing the swift flight of the crow that dove down on them. This was but one of three dead raven dolls Naruto had placed around the clearing, back when he prepared for the possibility of battle.

Noticing the conspicuous bird, his opponents sidestepped, yet Sasuke was much slower to react. If both him and the Uchiha had read similar reports regarding a certain member of Akatsuki, Naruto was sure this particular animal would have some sway over the boy. Psychological warfare… Thank you, Kabuto.

The raven, of course, exploded on impact. Naruto let out a breath of relief, but as soon as the blast cleared, affluent clusters of Kikkai dropped dead to Sasuke's feet, apparently shielding him from the explosion. Sasuke flew forward, rapidly closing the gap between the Uzumaki and his fists. Naruto let loose another crow to intercept the Uchiha, aiming slightly closer to himself (since he assumed Sasuke may not have revealed his true speed yet).

The explosion was loud and tall. When Naruto gained view of the target again, a burnt wooden stump rested were Sasuke's torso should have been. Suddenly, Naruto's ears prickled as he heard the earth opening up several feet behind him.

The blonde threw his hands backwards as he heard Sasuke dashing towards him. The bandages around Naruto's arms stretched and unfurled, ready to entangle the unsuspecting Uchiha.

But just as fast as they were extended, the bandages went limp. The chakra strings were cut… but how?

The answer came in shortly. From the corner of his eye, Naruto noticed a flickering blue light. The glow intensified as the sound of chirping birds filled the small clearing. Of course, Naruto should have known better. Preparing a Kawarimi and then shooting up from the ground right behind him… this maneuver had Kakashi's training written all over it.

But Naruto was calm. Sasuke was expending a lot of chakra for this one strike, if Naruto could somehow block it… It was time for the Jichuriki's new move. Thanks again, Kabuto.

Back in the iron, the disciple and spy developed a powerful variant of the chakra scalpel. Apparently, Naruto's chief elemental affinity was wind, and the Samurai training he took (combined with his existing medical-nin skills) made it terribly easy for him to master the shape manipulation needed to form a scalpel knife. He could practically do it in his sleep.

And so, Kabuto assisted the teen in incorporating nature transformation into the Jutsu, and thus the wind scalpel was born. The new blade could cut through most things with supreme precision. It wasn't as destructive as Kakashi's Raikiri, but the sheer combination of nature and shape transformations made the technique truly powerful. Plus, Naruto mused, wind held the elementary advantage over lightning.

Naruto molded the knife, injecting pale bursts of wind chakra into the elongating honed mass. When Sasuke was sufficiently close, the blonde turned his arm abruptly, slashing diagonally across the Uchiha's body, all the way to the blinding orb protruding from his open palm.

Naruto expected blood, or at least the feeling of Sasuke's counterweight smashing against his own... But instead, the charging form trembled in its place, slowly blurring out of existence. A Bunshin? But then, how did he cut the chakra strings?

Naruto used his puppeteering technique to view the battlefield from the eyes of his remaining crow. Indeed, Sasuke wasn't right behind him, but rather crouching on one knee next to the hole he emerged from earlier. From his bare hand, a solid blade of lightning stretched all the way to an inch from Naruto's back, vibrating with noisy static.

As Naruto's arms dropped, a vindicated smirk stretched upon the Uchiha's face. "Chidori Nagashi", he uttered.

Naruto was annoyed, and whenever he was irritated, his mind started racing. Clearly, this team was trying to bring him back alive. Which meant Sasuke's blade was probably meant to cripple, not kill. Naruto could take the hit, fling himself to the side, and use his last raven as a distraction. If he could earn enough time to yank out his giant scroll, he could literally wipe the floor with his opponents, present Uchiha included.

But wait. Something was… off. _Why am I thinking this? Why am I here, to begin with?_

He was here because he was led into a trap. Neji wasn't here. In all seriousness, the Hyuga was probably still locked up in the Hidden Leaf. So why didn't Naruto consider this scenario to be reasonably probable? Because the intel came from Sasori, of course.

The Scorpion was a veteran spymaster, there's no way he would have been fooled by such a cheap ploy. So Sasori knew. He knew this was a trap. But why did he send him here, then? Naruto thought hard, rummaging through his memory and pushing all anger and bewilderment aside.

 _I am showing it to you so you'll understand, Naruto…_ Sasori's voice echoed through his mind.

 _Eventually, **you too must cut your mortal cords** , and give birth to a true form of art…_

So that was it. For some reason, Sasori wanted his disciple to settle his unfinished business. And he was very cryptic about it, too. This, Naruto realized, was not the end of the road to avenge poor Hinata… but merely… the beginning?

"Fine, you got me" Naruto declared while raising his hands in surrender. Sasuke looked skeptical, his lightning arm not even twitching. A short pause. "Really?" Shino asked finally. He gawked at Naruto from one of the clearing's edges, his posture conveying caution in every sense of the word.

"Yes, really" the Uzumaki replied.

"And what are we supposed to do now?" Sasuke asked blandly.

"Well, if it's not too much trouble, Sasuke-kun…" answered the blonde awkwardly, "I'd like to go home now."


	5. Chapter 3 - Homecoming

**Chapter III – Homecoming**

 _Interesting…_ said the slippery voice, sounding playfully intrigued.

Sasuke hated when it spoke like that. Acting like an old sage, hinting that if you'd like to get a straight answer you'll probably have to beg. The whole attitude was incredibly annoying.

'What's interesting?' the Uchiha said in his thoughts. Even in his own head he sounded impatient.

 _You're still thinking about that fight._

It wasn't wrong. The NRT and their… package… had reached the village gates this afternoon, and by now the dazzling sun was long replaced by a pale crescent. Under the orders of the Hokage, Naruto was given the night to rest while Shino accompanied him, making sure the blonde does not attempt another escape. Many hours have passed since then, yet the Uchiha was still troubled.

 _I too am unsure as to why he was… holding back._

'What?' Sasuke thought. 'Naruto wasn't holding back.'

 _Of course he was…_ the voice within his mind retorted. _You noticed three crows with those eyes of yours, yet the boy surrendered after expending only two. And besides, his chakra wasn't anywhere near spent._

Right again. 'Maybe he was afraid to move a muscle, with my eyes on his back and the Chidori an inch from breaking his skin.'

 _Perhaps,_ the voice responded, not even bothering to feign acknowledgement.

Conversing with the voice was mentally taxing, but it was definitely worth the effort. Sasuke would hate to even imagine how weak he would have been if it weren't for its guidance. It told the Uchiha secrets of great power, it taught him to think better, to move better, to be better. It could even guide his hands during battle, if truly necessary.

The voice wasn't an intrusion, either. It wasn't some alien presence, squatting around the attic of the Uchiha's psyche. Unleashing it felt more like discovering a ghostly limb you never knew you had, or a forgotten page in a journal you wrote a long time ago, when you were young, and different.

At the present, it was hard to even imagine why Sasuke hesitated to extricate it from the blocking seals Naruto placed on his shoulder, a lifetime and a half ago.

Back then the Uchiha felt powerless, and immensely frustrated. Joining the NRT did nothing the boy had expected. Training under Jiraya was supposed to be a privilege, but the elder was barely around. Instead, the team was commanded by Kakashi again, only this time around Sasuke had to share the Hatake's tutelage with four other students, instead of two.

And for all his personal training, the Uchiha wasn't getting better at an acceptable rate. It wasn't nearly as impressive as Naruto's improvement, back in the day. The Uzumaki, Sasuke eventually learned, was trained by a former member of Akatsuki, the very organization that held his older brother within its ranks.

Sasuke couldn't bear the thought. In one of his most desperate hours, he pondered giving it all up. His vengeance, his oath, all those promises he made to himself while spending oh-so-many nights weeping in his sleep. But in that low, abysmal moment, Sasuke found his light. The blade to pass through his brother's heart. The course to lead him down the avenger's path. The ultimate means to his ultimate end.

It was a little over two years ago when the young Uchiha sat in his apartment, sifting through the contents of a large, wooden crate. The NRT was less than a year running, and the team still hoped to be able to divine Naruto's location on their own. They divvied up the blonde's possessions and inspected them, hoping to find some clues as to where the Uzumaki or his master might have fled.

Sasuke wasn't having any luck, and thinking of Naruto only amplified his swelling desperation. The crate was filled with messy scrolls, sloppily labeled poisons and hefty tomes or textbooks. Some of Naruto's notes were so unbelievably incoherent, that merely going over them would cause any decent human being a throbbing headache.

The Uchiha was close to giving up, on the task at hand as well as everything else, when suddenly a knock was heard from the apartment door.

It was none other than Sakura, standing incredibly still with a rehearsed smile plastered upon her face. She was definitely waiting there for some time now. Yet when her eyes met Sasuke's, her grin practically dissipated. The Uchiha's expression had betrayed his mood, no doubt, and Sakura did not have the manners to simply ignore this discovery.

"What's wrong?" she asked softly. "Nothing", Sasuke replied, fixing his countenance to that familiar aloofness of the Uchiha brand. "What are you doing here?"

After a short pause Sakura sighed, prodding for information would get her nowhere. "I have a message from the Hokage" she explained. "He sent for Naruto's things some time ago and found out that we took them, he wants something from your crate."

" _My_ crate?" Sasuke replied.

"Yeah, from your crate." Said the Kunoichi. "I told him that we divided the goods between us, and I guess he figured it would be faster to tell me what he was looking for rather than gather all of Naruto's belongings from every corner of the village."

"There was a scroll…" she continued, "I remember seeing it when we sorted out the goods, it had Anko's name on it."

"Anko?" Sasuke asked blandly. They both knew who was the ninja in question, the entire Leaf was aware that she fell into a coma, her hospital bed laid out right next to Ino's dad. But for Naruto to have any scroll of hers seemed unlikely. The lady wasn't exactly the reading type.

"Yeah! Apparently, Naruto had left a document with instructions on how to treat her, so they can wake her up!" the pinked haired teen called cheerfully, only to lose her spirit on her next remark. "I already asked, and whatever she has is nothing like Ino's father, so that would be no help there."

The Uchiha suppressed the urge to reply how little did he care. "Why do they need Naruto's help for that? I remember he trained as a Medical nin back then, but surely there are better-"

"Anko has some sort of a seal… or a curse. I don't know exactly. But it might interfere with the procedure, and Naruto was very good with sealing."

Sasuke almost touched the back of his shoulder, purely by instinct. He stopped himself half-way through and held his chin broodingly, as if hard at thought.

"Anyway, it's a small scroll with a thick, red rope wrapped around the middle. The Hokage wants you to find and deliver it by dawn."

Sasuke nodded, and with a swift goodbye, Sakura was gone.

The Uchiha was perplexed. He remembered how he got his own seal, and how he concluded that Orochimaru was a mad monstrosity that should by no means be trusted. He was relieved when Naruto took care of the issue for him. But something did not make sense here…

Anko was Orochimaru's disciple. Anyone who ever saw her fight, with kunai laced with poisons raining on the battlefield and numerous serpents appearing from her sleeves and back, could easily infer as much. So when Sasuke deduced this, he resolved to read up on the history of that ill-tempered Shinobi. Apparently, Anko's apprenticeship was a matter of public record, and it was even noted that the young ninja remained loyal to her master up until the very end (when the snake deigned to finally leave the village). No wonder she was treated so badly by the rest of the Jonin.

Sasuke also knew that even if Orochimaru eventually lost his mind, he was once a celebrated ninja. He even heard Jiraya call the serpent "a once-in-a-generation genius". So for argument's sake, let's assume Orochimaru was rational. Why would he punish his loyal pupil with such a terrible curse?

Could it be that the seal wasn't meant as a punishment, but as a… gift?

The Uchiha dreaded the thought. Could it be that Sasuke denied himself of a powerful weapon? That Naruto knew this, and perhaps hindered him on purpose?

No. This wasn't important right now. The teen took a breath and proceeded to look for the prized scroll. He found it tucked away in the corner of the crate: rolled white paper darkened with dust, held by a crimson cord strapped thrice around its center.

He opened it and examined the instructions. Among other things he could not understand, Sasuke spotted the drafts of the arrays the Uzumaki used to confine his own curse. So they'll be blocking Anko's seal, as well.

This, could be useful. If Sasuke could use the blonde's notes to figure out how to bar the curse, he might be able to reverse-engineer it… releasing the weapon placed inside him.

So the Uchiha got to work, looking for similar charts on any of Naruto's notes and sketches. There were none. He then proceeded into reading Naruto's summaries on sealing, from basic to extremely profound.

Useless. The Uzumaki was the most unorganized mind Sasuke had ever seen, he couldn't fathom how the little prankster could even think. Fortunately, there were official and foreign texts in that crate as well. Sasuke tried his best to learn anything he could, but sealing was just too complicated to master overnight. The little knowledge he already had in the field proved to be superficial, or even misleading, and though the Uchiha had made considerable progress, he was nowhere near understanding the seals on his shoulder.

Hours have passed, and dawn had almost descended upon the village. Sasuke was required to report to the Hokage soon, and if Anko's doctors will need any more information, he might lose Naruto's other belongings as well.

Think Sasuke, think. The teen closed his eyes, crossed his fingers and leaned his head atop his hands. He once heard that Shikamaru kid explaining he meditates a certain way when in a pinch, so he opted to adopt the habit.

After a moment of thought, Sasuke's eyes flew open, his iris as red as the rising sun.

He grabbed an ink filled brush and rolled down the parchment, copying Naruto's handwriting with his eyes along the way. When he reached the end of the document, he appended a paragraph onto the scroll. This had to be risky.

 _– Break –_

The Third Hokage looked confused. His elderly face staring directly at Sasuke, the scroll spread open across his desk, and his pipe clenched hard in his thumb. "So Naruto shared this with you?" he asked in a tone that felt calm, yet deliberately straining.

"Yes, a long time ago." the Uchiha answered.

"And we know this just now, because…?"

"Well," Sasuke replied, "Naruto showed me the technique itself, and told me of the seals, but he never mentioned who or what this was for."

"I see." said the head of the Leaf, not entirely convinced.

"And he explained the procedures to you in such detail, that we will benefit from you being there?"

"-Unfortunately, yes." Intoned the teen with a bland expression. The hint that he had better things to do than attend a medical operation was abundantly clear.

"Mmm." The old man uttered. He appeared lost in thought for a second, then inquired, "What exactly did he share with you, can you give me an example?"

Sasuke's heart started racing, the old man was testing him. He knew this moment might come, and he had a plan. But as hastily made as his solution was, as so it was risky.

The teen stepped forward and motioned for the Kage's brush, lifting it over a piece of scrap paper at the edge of the table. He concentrated for a short while, then sketched the form of the cursed seal. _His_ cursed seal.

This was the moment of truth. The shape of the seal was a piece of information that was surely need-to-know, but what if the seal looked different on different people? What if Anko's curse looked nothing like his? What would Sarutobi think then?

The Hokage's eyes widened, and his forehead wrinkled with thought.

"And what is this?" the elder asked.

"Some seal Naruto knew how to block" Sasuke replied. His tone was as dry as his throat.

The leader of the leaf paused for a quick moment, then turned to Sasuke with a fatherly smile, stretching ear-to-ear.

"Indeed," the Kage disclosed, "Anko has the same seal on her person. As part of the procedure, we will have to contain it prior to surgery. I'd like you to be there, for the first part."

Sasuke feigned a small surprise, then agreed. He would come to make sure everything is as Naruto explained it should be, and ensure Anko would get the proper treatment she deserves.

And indeed, that night Sasuke watched as the seal was caged, intently, with his eyes painted in the blood of the Uchiha Kekkei Genkai. The Sharingan couldn't aid you in learning a technique by reading about it, but watching a skilled Shinobi perform it was a whole other thing.

Suddenly, all of Naruto's disorganized comments made sense. Sasuke could understand how the arrays were placed, counted, and how they interacted with one another. He even learned that Naruto had to use his own blood to cement the process, as did the doctors when treating the slumbering Anko.

Later that night, when the Leaf was falling asleep, Sasuke stealthed away to his team's old training ground, where Kakashi's lumber posts stood still against the moonlight.

Breaking Naruto's blockade was presumably hard work, considering it was designed so that no one could just undo it with the stroke of a finger. But the cage fed upon the host's own chakra, and thus, if you _were_ the host yourself, you could use your body's energy to completely tear it apart.

And so, Sasuke froze in place, gathering chakra as the damp winds washed over his hair. Once composed, he channeled his inner energy towards the blocking arrays, and formed the proper hand seals.

 _Monkey, Snake, Dragon, Snake, Dog, Ox, Monkey, Bird …_

With every seal the teen could feel the arrays dissolving from his skin, and it stung like a corrosive antiseptic spilled over an open wound. The source of his curse trickled with blood as the stinging sensation grew to an unbearable flame.

He kept going, hands cold and numb, nerve endings screaming with searing pain, the feeling of his chakra sucked out of his lower body: from the tips of his toes to the huge reservoirs in his trembling gut. The teen was unwilling to stop for even a second, until the pain finally subsided.

And then it hit him. The full force of expending all that chakra, and the unnerving stab in his back that he felt back when the seal was just created. He tumbled to the ground uncontrollably, spasming and losing his eyesight in a staggering rate.

Before slipping off into the darkness he heard an echoing voice blasting between his ears. Was that… laughter?

…

He woke up to the feeling of someone touching his shoulder, or rather, jostling him violently. The volume of the world around him was increasing from a subtle mute to a cacophony of sound, and he could hear a pitched voice, screaming.

Sasuke? _Sasuke_?!

It was Sakura, again. She held the Uchiha's face between her hands and shook him rapidly, her eyes conveying profound concern.

"I'm fine." Sasuke blurted.

"Fine?! Look at you" she retorted.

Sasuke glanced at his arm, it was covered with black markings that seemed as though they were burnt into his flesh. He looked mangled, and weak, yet he felt stronger than ever.

"What are you doing here?" he asked with narrowed eyes.

"I was worried about you, yesterday you seemed… so I snuck out of the house and came to your apartment, but it was empty! I looked all over for you-"

"Did you ask anyone about me?" the Uchiha interrupted, an accusing undertone to his voice.

"No, I just figured you might come here if you didn't want anyone to-"

"You have to go." he exclaimed.

" _Go_? Look at your face, Sasuke, I…"

And there it was. The same voice that was laughing before, from between the boy's ears spreading outwards, not bothering with any polite comments or petty introductions.

 _You need to get rid of her…_

Slippery, drawling, like it was still chuckling from before.

"Go home and sleep." Sasuke ordered, decisively.

A pause.

Sakura stayed silent, the sounds of the crickets around her filling the village air.

A single tear ran down her cheek.

"Why…" she asked.

"Why don't you ever tell me anything? Why do you always stay silent?"

Her eyes were watering, her expression hurt, yet something about her was suddenly resolute.

"Why won't you say anything to me-"

"Why do I have to tell you anything?" the Uchiha replied, not spending a single drop of empathy.

"It's none of your business", he looked away, "stop concerning yourself with what I do."

Sakura's head fell, bright strands of hair covering her trembling face. She seemed as though she was about to crack, like a glass figurine under extreme heat, under the highest of pressures. But she didn't. Instead, she smiled.

"You've… always hated me, haven't you?"

"Even on our first day as Genin…" she added, "you told me I was annoying."

"I don't remember." Sasuke retorted, catching Sakura by surprise.

"Makes sense," she said after a thought, "That was a long time ago…"

"But that's the day everything started." she exclaimed, smiling again.

"I know about your clan and everything…" she added while gazing at the marks on his arm, "but revenge… that won't make anyone happy."

"No one." She whispered. "Not you, not me."

 _Sasuke…_

The voice called again.

"Just as I thought" the Uchiha remarked with a smirk.

"I'm different from you, any of you. I walk a different path." he continued while the voice in his head got louder and louder.

"I've tried thinking that it was my path, to do all that we've done up until now. But my heart decided on revenge, in the end."

Sakura looked baffled, and then disappointed. Sasuke stared sternly to the sky, his eyes glistening in the wind.

"That's my purpose in life." he stated.

"Are you going to choose to be alone again?!" the girl cried, her heart practically leaping out of her chest. "Are you going to shut me off like that?! I have friends Sasuke… I have a family, but if you choose to do this, to me it will be the same as _being alone!"_

"From now on, things will be different for all of us." the teen replied, not even acknowledging her words.

"I…! I love you so much!" she yelled, her throat hoarse and stifled.

"If you'll just share with me, I'll make sure you won't regret it!" Sakura promised, pain echoing in every phrase, "I'll do anything for you… so please, _talk to me!_ "

Sasuke lifted his head, turning towards the weeping girl. He looked at her placidly, knowing there was no easy way out. It's too bad that it had to come to this, he thought. Too bad.

"You really _are_ annoying."

Sasuke's words hit her like a stone wall. She took a deep breath, but before she could say anything, the Uchiha appeared behind her.

"Sakura," he whispered, "thank you."

Swiftly, Sasuke hit the girl on the back of her head, rendering her completely unconscious. He held her as she fell down, and heard the voice in his head barely saying something. It was pleased.

The teen proceeded to cleaning the scene from any possible trace, and headed back to Sakura's house. He entered her room through the window, securing her gently in her bed. He then slipped her a drop of one of the Naruto's poisons, which he found in his own crate. When she'll wake up, hours from now, she'll be sure it was all but a bad dream.

And that night was the first time Sasuke heard the voice, and indeed, ever since then, nothing was ever the same.

…

 _So why were you still thinking about it, then?_

The voice asked. Sasuke, lost in memory, took a while to answer.

'Thinking about what?'

 _About the fight with the Jinchuriki…_

'Oh.' The Uchiha uttered, snapping back into reality. 'That place that we've been to, in his mind, where the Ninetails was, I've never seen anything like it. It must be some… demonic technique.'

 _Hardly…_

The voice replied, slightly amused.

 _You have one too._

"What?!" Sasuke said out loud. 'Where?! How do I access it?' he thought hastily.

The voice nearly giggled.

A cloud hovered over the moon, shadowing the entire village. Or… wait. There was no cloud. Sasuke was seeing black, and the darkness spread from the corners of his eyes so abruptly it felt like they were nailed shut.

He fell to his knees, and before he could respond, the shadows subsided.

He was at the old Uchiha grounds, along the path to his childhood home. The night's sky was illuminated by a bellowing, full moon, bright against the silhouettes of empty houses.

Further down the road a figure stood, looking straight at him. Sasuke half expected to see his brother, but in front of him stayed a different form, no less menacing.

"Hello, Sasuke-kun…" said the form in that oh-so-familiar voice.

"Welcome home."

 _– Break –_

Returning to the Hidden Leaf was surprisingly underwhelming. The village at night, with its clandestine guards and entry codes, the Jonin patrolling the streets and walls, the silence of the town amplified by the sounds of forest… it was definitely not what Naruto had missed.

He missed the laughter of avid children, running around playing Shinobi. He missed Ichiraku Ramen, the barbeque, the sight of the giant Kage statues baking in the summer sun. He missed the part of the Leaf that was, well, alive.

At the moment, he wasn't allowed to witness any of that. The higher-ups decided he will be "temporarily contained" until the Hokage will see him tomorrow, and will announce that the former renegade is no longer a viable threat. A little insulting, if you ask Naruto. But no one did.

And so, the Jinchuriki was placed in a random apartment, with Shino shadowing his every move. The two barely talked since Naruto arrived, but he knew Shino better than to think the teen needed any reason to remain silent.

Right now, the Aburame was standing outside the house, letting Naruto have a proper rest. But the blonde had things to do. He came here for a reason, and opted to get to work as soon as possible.

Back in the snow, there were a few times where Naruto discussed Neji with Kabuto. Kabuto seemed reluctant to talk about the whole thing, but then again, he seemed reluctant to talk about anything personal. When he did, however, he mentioned a location in the village where he suspected prisoner transports were being made. He discovered the area when he was new to the Leaf, and investigated such things to prepare himself for the possibility of getting caught.

The location was near the feet of the Kage's cliff, not very far from Naruto's current position. But Shino had his bugs all over the place. He was a skilled sensory type, and, as it seemed, was hell bent on doing his job. How could the Jinchuriki slip away?

Naruto laid in his bed, looking through the glass window at Shino's resting form. The Aburame wasn't looking back, but of course, he did not need to.

 _No use trying to neutralize Shino himself_ , Naruto thought.

The blonde turned his gaze to the flat around him. No obvious points of egress, and if there were any, they were probably booby-trapped. So no use examining the structure, either. What else is there?

Naruto slumped to his side and stared at the window's ledge. Over the wooden railing one of Shino's bugs was crawling, freezing every few steps in that erratic way insects so often do. Kikkai were marvelous creatures, the Uzumaki thought.

He looked carefully at the beetle. It was a male, probably young, searching for all that may contain the smallest slither of delicious chakra. It was a pleasure to look at, how it hoisted its rough shell on top of its spine, how its legs moved in perfect tandem… something about it resembled the works of a quality puppet.

Naruto prickled his ears, trying to hear some other Kikkai moving their feet elsewhere in the apartment. There was one on the ceiling, also a male. The blonde could tell, since most beetle species had sternites on the end of their husk: little plates of exoskeleton that were placed tightly next to each other in females, yet had flexible membranes between them in males.

Another Kikkai, sitting in the dry part of the sink, also a male.

Wait.

Naruto searched for Kikkai around the room intently. One by one, they were all males. Some large, some small, some active and some dormant. But males nevertheless.

A long time ago, when Shino and Naruto started training together, the Uzumaki attempted to learn all he could about the bugs the Aburame clan were raising. Unfortunately, there was near to no public information about such things.

So instead, the blonde decided to read on insects in general (hence the knowledge about sex differences in various bugs and beetles). If Naruto assumed correctly, which now seemed to be the case, the species of bugs the Kikkai belonged too had mostly males, with one or two queens per colony.

The queens weren't extremely larger or otherwise distinct, at least not in a way a typical human would notice, but they were the only individuals in the colony that could reproduce. As such, they left strong pheromone trails to broadcast their location to the males, which meant…

 _Oh, Shino. You clever bastard._

Shino probably placed a female somewhere on Naruto's person, and if he ever left the vicinity, the Kikkai would react in an instant.

So what could Naruto do? He could secrete the Ninetails' Youkai from all over his skin and burn the queen alive. That would definitely kill her, but Shino will, most probably, notice. What was it that Kabuto used to say? "When figuring out you have a tail, tipping it off could be even worse than doing nothing." True enough, Kabuto.

Naruto had to contain the queen somehow, in a way that wouldn't tip Shino (or namely the other Kikkai) off. It needs to stay alive, and it needs to stay in the area of the flat. He deliberated for a while how to locate it, since he couldn't feel it walking on his skin. Her touch was too delicate, too light.

He considered focusing some chakra on a certain point on his person, but a small amount wouldn't draw in a Kikkai from far away, the insects were more disciplined than that. A large burst was also an option, but it might lure some of the surrounding males to the same spot as well, possibly alerting Shino.

After realizing the solution Naruto felt kind of dumb… he had the perfect female seeking tool right in front of him.

The teen shot a few chakra strings from his fingers, covering the part of his bedsheets that was closest to the wall. Soon enough, a handful of Kikkai appeared and started nibbling on the delectable cords. Naruto carefully tugged on one of the strings, pulling the male insect over his palm. He then proceeded to loop the line around the creature's torso, binding it in a tight knot.

The teen had to prevent the beetle from chewing on the cord, so he began to emit small amounts of medical chakra from his entire skin: this rich-in-life-energy variant was, the Uzumaki assumed, tastier for the little buggers.

And as expected, the crawler started darting around Naruto's back, gorging itself on the green essence. At first the insect had no defined course, but as the minutes passed by he began heading towards a specific direction.

Eventually, after jerking the chakra string around for a few seconds, the Kikkai stopped. Naruto pulled on the strand with precise force, hauling the beetle out from under his sleeve. Attached to the bug's hindlegs was another Kikkai, slightly larger and with no membranes on its shell.

The queen.

The blonde flicked the male away, stashing the female safely within his palm. He got up and walked lazily to a location where Shino could not see him directly. Naruto took a small scroll and brush with him, and as soon as he could, spread it over the counter and proceeded to scribble away tiny seal arrays.

On the front of the scroll, he drew an open palm made out of cursive seals and encircled with a matching array. He even chipped at his own fingernail and threw some blood into the mix. On the back of the scroll, at the exact same location, he drew an empty ellipse.

Feeling the queen getting more and more agitated, Naruto quickly put his hand over the palm pattern and breathed in deeply. In a second, he felt the chakra drain away from him like a spiking electric current. Dazed and confused, he siphoned a great amount of chakra from himself to the containment scroll, and from the empty ellipse on its back, verdant medical chakra started slowly leaking out.

The Uzumaki was pleased. He placed the scroll as close to his bed as possible, laid the female gently on the center of the ebbing chakra, and covered the entire thing with some rusty old pot.

He then placed a Bunshin seemingly asleep in his bed, and left through the back door. The blonde felt a little bad for his friend, but if everything goes well, Shino would never even know he was missing.

Naruto leaped hastily towards the cliff, favoring speed over stealth. He planned to poke around the area, maybe leave a crow or two for reconnaissance, and head back to his prison. But suddenly, something felt off.

The Jinchuriki directed some of his chakra to his ears, the way Kiba used to do to his nose, to amplify his hearing even further. He picked up on some Shinobi following him. Three, to be exact, all of which were extremely light-footed.

Naruto was getting tired of how unpopular he was, here in the Leaf. He couldn't pinpoint the location of his pursuers, so he decided to force them to show themselves. Assuming his followers were affiliated with the village, Naruto pulled a chain of explosive kunai from his sleeve, showing a clear intent to hurl them at the Hokage's office building.

Sure enough, a barrage of shuriken was shot his way, and Naruto flung the explosive kunai backwards in a wide fan. All of his assailants were forced out of hiding, landing in a makeshift square around the teen. There were actually four of them, which meant one had to be a true stealth master. All of them held kunai or shuriken in their hands, and all of them were Anbu. Real Anbu, this time around.

"Quite the welcoming committee" called the blonde. Not a single answer in return. Typical.

 _How did they find me?_ The Uzumaki wondered. Yet he had no time to think, as the first assailant was already heading towards him. Airborne, with half a pirouette, the Anbu female swung her kunai around, targeting Naruto's throat. Her aim was definitely 'kill', not 'capture'.

Naruto waited until the very last second, and sidestepped forcefully. The surprised Kunoichi lost balance, and Naruto shoved her back onwards with a strike from the side of his arm. The Anbu rolled haphazardly and slid across the dirt, crouching wearily as she stopped.

This sidestep was a signature Samurai move. By keeping composed and moving at the very last moment, the Samurai would surprise the confident Shinobi and use the opportunity to strike back. What was supposed to follow was not an arm strike, but the blade of a honed Katana.

Seeing how Naruto could handle himself against a solitary opponent, the Anbu decided to attack in pairs. A tall ninja leaped high into the air, and after a single hand seal, a salvo of fireballs started shooting from the jaws of his feline mask. Did they know Naruto was a wind type, or was this just some really bad luck?

In perfect harmony, another Anbu dashed towards the fleeing Naruto, fist raised and visibly focusing chakra. The Uzumaki flung one of his special kunai at the assailant, who deflected with a swift throw of a shuriken.

The kunai exploded without causing any damage, giving away the surprise. Damn. Utilizing the distraction, an Anbu with a plain mask appeared behind the blonde, not making a single sound. This was definitely the stealthy one.

Naruto had no time to turn, and was seconds away from getting his throat slit. Luckily, the Jinchuriki still had a trick or two left up his sleeve… literally.

The bandages around Naruto's arms unfurled, and shot straight towards his adversary's legs. Both caught on, and the teen pulled the Anbu's feet right from under him. The silent one fell to the ground, and Naruto used his torso as a stepping stone, leaping farther away from the group.

Midair, Naruto could see the fallen Anbu calling in pain under his mask. He had something strange between his teeth. The rest of his assassins shot forward, again forming a provisional square around their target.

This, was bad. Normally, Naruto might have been able to defeat them, or alternatively, buy enough time for the commotion to attract some aid (perhaps even Shino). But Naruto had almost no chakra left in him, as he wasted great amounts on the seal that would keep the queen Kikkai fed for the next couple of hours. He also did not have his great scroll with him, which housed his most lethal of weapons.

Naruto needed time to think, and so, as he often did in harsh situation, the teen accessed his mindscape.

The Dojo was as vacant as ever, and just as cold. The frozen winds blew harshly behind the walls, howling at the midnight sky. The Jinchuriki breathed heavily, resting his arms on his knees.

"Don't tell me you need _my_ chakra to kill these assholes" the Kyubi intoned, his deep voice causing the floors to tremble.

"Not everything is about you, Kurama." the blonde replied.

As Naruto turned his head towards the Dojo's entrance, the slidedoors flew wide open. But instead of a snowy land, what laid behind them were flickering lights and shapes, showing what the real Naruto viewed at the moment. The image was off-color, and blinking like an old, busted screen.

The Uzumaki gestured with his hand, and the image rewound, showing excerpts from the ongoing fight. Naruto kept watching as the Ninetails laid his head on the wooden floor, appearing visibly bored.

"It was a seal" Naruto remarked to himself, sounding genuinely surprised. The screen showed the Anbu that fell to the ground, his mouth open as he spasmed. There was nothing in his teeth, but his tongue was marked with a black seal, consisting of thick black lines along the width of the bare muscle.

The shape was elegant, so it probably served a single purpose, and not a very versatile one. After studying it for a while, Naruto spoke. "It has something to do with speech, I believe. What do you think it does, Kyubi?"

"Those masked fools are a secret lot, aren't they?" the fox inquired. "Perhaps it prevents them from speaking what they're not allowed" he elaborated, snorting in unmistakable contempt.

Naruto stopped to muse some more, simulating possible array formation in his mind. "I think you're right!" the teen called. The demon did not seem to care. "If they speak of certain things, the seal spreads. Perhaps paralyzing them, perhaps killing them off."

"So what kid" the Kyubi interrupted, "you're going to make them tell you all their secrets? Trust me brat, you're not _that_ charming."

"No." the blonde answered, "but I can use the seal's simplicity against it."

Back in the real world, the cat-mask and his partner were preparing for a second attempt. The fire breather hung back, while the other Anbu ran in a semi-circle towards Naruto. He unsheathed his Wakizashi on the way, preferring (Naruto assumed) to put some more distance between them.

The Jinchuriki sent his bandages flying towards the two attackers, two strands towards the runner's hands and one towards the cat-mask in the back. The fire user was far enough away to dodge easily, yet his partner had to work against the momentum of his dash. He quickly turned on one leg and used the other to jump off and to the side, Naruto's bandage only licking the blade of his dagger.

But Naruto wasn't aiming to grab the weapon.

A moment later, the slow hiss of a paper bomb was heard, and the Anbu noticed the sparking piece of parchment stuck to his Wakizashi's blade. He quickly flung the weapon aside, which exploded less than a second later. The blast tore off the lower half of the man's mask, and sent him and all of his comrades falling to their feet.

Taking advantage of their square-based formation, Naruto landed in the middle of the band, crossing his hands and wafting dozens of senbon all around him. The thin needles barely injured the ninja, who all rolled aside in unison and rose to their feet.

But again, Naruto wasn't aiming to injure.

Some of the airborne senbon where trailed by a newly formed chakra string, which the blonde aimed directly at his attacker's masks. The grounded Anbu (probably fearing the needles were poisoned) have dodged to protect any point of contact with their skins, and so some senbon came stuck half-way through their masks.

Naruto delicately manipulated the cords around the needles and crept them into the assailant's mouths, suppressing a smile of blatant content. "It's been fun boys" the teen called while flexing his fingers.

Naruto pulled on the chakra strings emanating from his fingertips, and the four Anbu lurched forward, yanked in forcefully by their jaws. The blonde channeled his chakra along the lines, overloading the seals on their tongues, just like he did when inventing his own special kunai.

In rapid succession, the masks burst. Clouds of smoke and blood erupted from his attacker's mouths, and he felt strangely satisfied as the silent one's mangled head finally hit the ground.

But the fourth Shinobi, the one with only the top half of his masked intact, stood entirely unharmed. Naruto was surprised. He tugged on the string connected to the Anbu's mouth, and the man's chin dropped as he fell forward again.

The line was still intact, and the seal was right there. In response, the Anbu realized what happened and cut the string with two fingers wrapped in swirling chakra.

 _There's only one explanation,_ Naruto thought. His seal had to be a fake. Which meant that this guy wasn't really working with the others. Could he be… a spy? Perhaps his seal was just a mark, or a tattoo.

The Jinchuriki had no time to check. He threw another special kunai between the two, and hurried back to the flat as it exploded. The teen was nearing his limit, and he assumed a spy would rather clean up this incriminating mess rather than pursue an ignorant target.

And indeed, Naruto wasn't followed.

But a spy? Within Anbu? The Uzumaki wondered. Sasori had said that even he couldn't plant a mole in the Anbu's ranks, so this guy, most probably, wasn't an outside agent. But Konoha, spying on their own Anbu? And that individual was clearly skilled with the Anbu dagger, so Anbu spying on Anbu then? Strange.

Why would any Anbu spy on his own? And more importantly, the blonde pondered, for whom?

 _– Break –_

Sarutobi Hiruzen wasn't exactly desperate. His office strained him greatly, and he would settle on a different position in a heartbeat, but he wasn't at all what one may call desperate.

He wasn't jaded, either. And he wasn't too old. In one word, the Third Hokage was tired.

Yet there he was, in the process of fixing another calamitous mess. Naruto had just returned, and sure enough, he was almost assassinated. Unbelievable. The culprit was on his way, and Sarutobi had to do whatever it takes to keep Naruto off his radar.

A long moment had passed, and a knock was heard on the office door. The Third said nothing, waiting for his visitor to come in. "You summoned me, Hiruzen?" said the old man stepping through the door.

Shimura Danzo was the only man who still referred to the Hokage by his name, perhaps as a throwback to their old friendship, perhaps as a sign of disrespect. In truth, it was probably a little bit of both. His dark hair was not the least bit grey, but every other feature of his being screamed of being elderly.

He had lines all over his face, most around his one visible eye. His back was crouched, and he was carrying himself with a cane. Hiruzen often wondered exactly how much of this was for show, and how feeble his friend had truly become.

"Yes." the Third stated heavily. "I trust you've heard what happened."

By now, everybody has. There were explosions, and corpses in the field. It was hardly deniable. Knowing this would be the case, Sarutobi waited the proper amount of time before calling for Danzo, allowing him to think he caught wind of the incident via the ordinary channels.

"I know as much about this as you do, Hiruzen, but I can always-"

"I don't need any more intel, Danzo." the Hokage retorted. "Tell me what happened."

"Mmm?" Danzo replied, his tone conveying the implied 'and you think I had something to do with it?' with the perfect amount of sarcasm. He always was a master politician.

Sarutobi knew he needed an excuse, and he wasn't about to reveal his sources. He also knew he would have to needlessly blame other factions, since Danzo surely had spies within the office, and Hiruzen needed the man to think he was not the sole suspect.

"You've meddled with the Naruto business before." Sarutobi stated. Danzo only looked back at the Third, raising a skeptical eyebrow.

"When you insisted Uchiha Sasuke remain in charge."

That was a long time ago. Danzo had employed considerable pressure to prevent the NRT from disbanding. At first Hiruzen thought the spymaster was concerned with the rogue Naruto, but when he insisted Sasuke will keep his role, the entire endeavor suddenly seemed bizarre.

"Well Hiruzen, it's been years, so I guess you deserve an explanation." Danzo looked annoyed, but he didn't sigh. For all his diplomacy, the man was still reluctant to show any weakness, or step outside the political norm.

"The young Uchiha is a risk, but he isn't the greatest risk. With your former student gone," Danzo said, deliberately referring to Orochimaru like that, "I turned some of my attention to our other renegades. Namely the boy's brother."

 _So that was it,_ the Third realized.

"We both know where the boy's obsession with power comes from. If he were to dedicate his life to hunting his brother, the outcome for Konoha could be ideal."

 _And by ideal you mean that they both kill each other, and the world will finally be rid of the Uchiha clan,_ Hiruzen thought. He should have seen that coming.

"Maybe I was quick to blame you" the Hokage replied, feigning apology in his voice.

Danzo looked relaxed, as if he could not possibly imagine a different outcome.

"Just keep in mind," Sarutobi added, "Uzumaki Naruto is my responsibility, and mine alone."

He paused.

"Is that clear?"

"Clear, Hiruzen," the spymaster echoed as he got up from his chair.

Walking back towards the door, Danzo stopped mid-step, speaking without facing his Kage.

"Just remember Hiruzen… students that you've taken under your wing tend to end up dead" he declared, resuming his stride.

"Or worse."

As soon as Danzo left the office, the Third smacked his fist against the table.

 _That bastard,_ he thought. _He's wrong. It won't come to that, not this time. I won't let it._

Sarutobi sighed audibly and reluctantly lifted his pipe. _Such chaos, no one seems safe, nothing seems sacred… how did I let the village become this… rotten._

 _And to think,_ he mused, sadness creeping into his aging heart,

 _I used to be proud to call the Leaf my home._


	6. Chapter 4 (Bonus) – The Sound of Silence

_Hey guys! Long time no write._

 _I've had a really busy time lately and kind of gave writing a rest, but I'm back now. I've recently written a full account of the planned synopsis for Scorpion's Demise and will hopefully be publishing new chapters regularly from now on._

 _To celebrate this I've written sort of a bonus chapter, which takes place some time before the current point in the story, hope you'll enjoy it._

* * *

 **Chapter IV (Bonus) – The Sound of Silence**

At first glance, Mitarashi Anko seemed utterly insane. It wasn't just her demeanor, the care-free attitude she displayed so haughtily as both her charm and her weapon, or her blunt disregard for protocols of the acceptable social norm. What the Jonin was presently attempting could only be described, in professional terms, as bat-shit crazy.

First and foremost, this territory was wild, barely explored, and absolutely lawless. Ever since Orochimaru was stuffed into a vessel befitting his vile, detestable form, the Land of Sound had slowly but surely gone to shit. Secondly, Anko had set out alone. No other Shinobi were willing to risk escorting her, and the old Third was not convinced by her subtle rhetoric when she asserted how "super-fucking-crucial" this mission was. And last but not least, the Kunoichi was, in fact, still recovering.

It had been some time since Anko was awakened from her coma, only to learn that her little devil of a savoir had left the village, with a former member of Akatsuki as his mentor, no less. It was a funny thing to have in common with the kid, she mused. Well, depending on your definition of funny.

The sad truth was that even so long after the operation, the purple haired ninja was not yet back to full capacity. Her chakra reserves were still dwindled, if only a little, and her mobility casually resolved to drop a peg or two, especially when she needed it most. Setting out on a solo mission to strange, foreign soil wasn't exactly the most sensible step towards a healthy recovery.

But Anko saw no other choice. Leaving Orochimaru's research out in the open was pure madness, akin to handing a civilian child a bundle of second-rate explosive seals. And deciding to do nothing about it, which Sarutobi seemed to be content with doing, was the political equivalent of turning around before one leaves, only to ask the toddler if he might also be interested in a pair of matches.

Moreover, the Kunoichi harbored some very particular concerns. Concerns that she hesitated to share with her superiors, fearing to be painted as even more thoroughly deranged than she was, already, mistakenly portrayed.

Her worries could have been summed up in but two measly words…

Edo Tensei.

The corrupt pinnacle of the former Sanin's forbidden arts, standing well above the rest of his Kinjutsu, at its well deserving spot on the very top of the shit-pile: The Edo Tensei no Jutsu was pioneered by the second Hokage, Tobirama Senju, who cut his research short when he finally comprehended what it was that he was actually contriving. Her former mentor, however, was not as… morally constrained.

The technique aimed to raise the dead, bringing the fallen back to the world of the living. Orochimaru never perfected the craft when Anko was still under his tutelage, but he had spent so many years as a missing nin, who knew what the damn reptile could have possibly accomplished?

Anko was genuinely afraid, inwardly shuddering to her very core. Not just at what some careless bastard might do if he or she were to lay hands on such a powerful Jutsu, but also dreading the possibility that the former head of the Sound still retained some loyal agents, perhaps under explicit orders to find his research and utilize it to, somehow, bring the White Snake back onto mortal soil.

Anko could not allow that to happen. Not under any order, not in fear of any cataclysmic, inconceivable or deplorable cost. Her mentor belonged nowhere else but in the fiery depths of hell, and if she had to descend down under herself and burn for eternity to make certain of that, then so be it.

Surging through the dimly lit forests of the Sound Country, Anko was finally nearing her final destination. Of all the estimated locations for Orochimaru's hideouts offered by her superiors, the current one was both abundant with the natural resources her teacher was fond of for his research operations, and closest to where the leader of Akatsuki had originally struck at this poor, defenseless land.

The Leaf Shinobi looked around, silently dropping from a treetop to the precipice of a modest pile of rocks, overlooking the dale in front of her. Once one had a good enough estimate of where to find a sizable hideout, locating the actual structure wasn't all too difficult. Vast dungeons needed strong foundations, especially in the subterrain, and thus most of the truly extensive Sound bases were built upon repurposed ruins from the old Land of Rice Fields, and not just spontaneously conjured out of nowhere.

It was true, of course, that Sound Shinobi worked tirelessly to hide any potential clues to the ruins' position. But some deductions, like how structures from older times couldn't have been built on swampy patches or areas with high risk of flooding, were beyond the power of mere mortals to invalidate.

After narrowing down the search-space considerably, the purple haired ninja observed an anomaly in the dark canopy that stretched beneath her boots as she leaped for a better vantage point. A small patch of treetops to the south-west seemed to be slightly lower than the rest of the shrub, consistently maintaining this disparity for a radius of a few dozen feet. Landing there, she discovered even lower saplings along the breadth of the area, that formed, collectively, a second coat of foliage underneath the observable layer at the top. The saplings were sparse and greatly spaced from one another, yet all seemed to be of about a common age. Someone must have planted them here on purpose. The greater, strangely heighted trees (which drew her attention in the first place) seemed to grow more horizontally then vertically, their branches clawing at one another like the shriveled fingers of an old, blind man, testily groping at the air around him.

That was possibly intentional as well. If gardened correctly, many species of trees and hedges may be encouraged to grow in one or more preferred direction. If that was the case, someone was obviously attempting to obscure this section of the thicket from overhead inspection.

Preferring not to risk detection, Anko decided to expend one of her snakes to look around. She straightened her arm forward and, with a practiced motion, swiftly formed a sequence of haphazardly gestured hand seals using her other palm. Through the draping sleeve of her heavy, beige overcoat, a muscly black shape slithered out into the forest air, steadily dropping to the Kunoichi's feet.

Without considerable respite, Anko was able to summon exactly 44 serpents in a single stretch of combat. Although any sufficiently knowledgeable ninja would consider this quota to be quite impressive, Orochimaru deemed any number beneath the lower triple digits to be virtually laughable. Under 120-160 pythons, the specific number depending on the user's chakra reserves, a Shinobi would have no choice but to keep track of how many snakes she "wastes" when facing the average Jonin in prolonged action.

The serpent slithered away, his motion only detectable through the ripples his trajectory dispatched upon the lanky underbrush. It returned a few minutes later, before promptly signaling that it found something of note, and dispelling itself back to safety.

Following the serpent's former trail, Anko pressed through some particularly lush seedlings and spotted a brick formation immersed deeply into the ground. The hoary stoneworked steps were cracked and plotted with thorny weeds, but the man-sized gate that stood to her front as she descended was reinforced with newer beams of dark, grainy wood.

 _Jackpot._

Anko didn't fear any mechanical traps. The majority of Sound Village bases had fallen into disrepair, standing empty for over a year now. Other Shinobi, careless adventurers or even unwitting passersby, have probably found this hidden entrance before her, and have graciously sprung most of those nasty booby traps.

Yet despite these favorable odds, going in past the gate, the Jonin felt as though her boot had snapped through a steel cord, or some similar barrier, and she froze hovering mid-step. She looked around, a kunai sliding to her right palm. Chakra streaming towards her feet, she was prepared to hurl herself through the dark corridor at the slightest provocation… yet a few moments have passed, and nothing happened. A close inspection of the entryway yielded no evidence of a physical trap, and so, the Kunoichi pressed on.

The space beneath the slanting corridor was dully lit with the glow of some parasitic species of fungi, their faint bioluminescence casting blurry shadows over shattered brick and crumbled pavement. The hall was massive, spreading way beyond Anko's limited I-can-see, and she immediately noticed the rows of broad stone pillars, rising from the ground every few meters or so, and shouldering what she judged to be a surprisingly high ceiling.

Further to the depths of the fathomless hall some focused points of light were twinkling, playfully grabbing at Anko's attention. She advanced stealthily towards the light source, spotting several gas lanterns at work, each of them squarely fixed to a different pillar.

Well, someone _was_ here, but when, and for how long? These lanterns were of a pretty expensive model, on a full tank they could run for hours, possibly even days. The Jonin moved forward to examine one of the gaslights, pressing her fingers against the curving glass. It was still cold.

"Recently lit…" she murmured.

"-Indeed, only three and a half minutes ago" a voice retorted from her back.

Anko quickly spun on her hills, keeping her kunai in the proper guard position. To her front stood a boy wearing a dusty, worn cloak. A bushel of red hair slumped slovenly from his skull, half covering his eyes, both of which were staring right through her, conveying a sense of mild disinterest. He looked to be of average height and an unimpressive physique, yet he didn't appear to be frightened by either her or her weapon.

Concerned by the kid's attitude, the Kunoichi pretended to deflate while amassing chakra from her surroundings. Somehow noticing this, the red-haired youth tilted his head to the side, as though mystified. Anko tensed. He was certainly not a civilian.

But what was this adolescent ninja doing _here_ , of all places? Was he a former Sound Chunin, somehow dumb enough to hide at such a risky location? Or maybe… one of Orochimaru's test subjects, finally freed from captivity but ultimately lacking anywhere else to go?

The teen formed a seal, and suddenly, dozens of other lanterns, each positioned on a different pillar, sparked to life in a tumbling cascade of gaslights.

Anko was bewildered. The hall was indeed huge, she could tell now, as it spread even deeper into the darkness behind her. The little ninja was obviously alone, so why light up the room? If he meant her any harm, why reveal his disadvantage? Two parallel scenarios sprung to mind: the boy was either a true novice, not fully understanding his tactical situation, or a colossal threat – understanding, but not caring one way or the other.

"Nice digs you got here, kid" said the Jonin, smiling her cavalier yet devilishly sinister smile. "Want to tell me what this is all about? I didn't mean to step on your toes or anything."

"Unfortunately," said the red headed Shinobi with a sigh, "merely considering what you've already seen puts us beyond the stage of polite conversation."

Anko visibly frowned. She'll have to determine which scenario was the veritable one, and she'll have to do it fast. Without so much as a blink, the Jonin shot her kunai directly in the direction of the kid's head, and lunged her entire body forward.

The teen caught the weapon mid-air, twisting it in his palm as he dodged her kick while keeping an impressively short range behind her. In the corner of her eye Anko could glimpse the boy's arm shifting as he drove the tip of the kunai along her left shoulder and back, neatly ripping her coat. She could feel that he was purposefully limiting his reach, opting not to go for a kill.

 _Shit. Definitely not a novice._

The Kunoichi turned halfway back, partially facing her short opponent, the sliced plat of her coat lazily making its way to the ground between them.

With this kind of speed he was probably going to hit her hard, before she could even notice. Anko raised her hands by way of bracing herself, but the red headed ninja simply stood there. Seeming confused, he was staring straight at her bare shoulder.

 _What…_ she thought indignantly, _Seriously?_

After an extremely tense pause, the boy raised his addled gaze, finally deciding to look her in the eye. "Mitarashi Anko" the youth uttered formally, "Naruto has told me much about you."

 _By Kami's holy shit…_

Who is this guy? So he knew of her, and he inferred her identity, most probably, by the mark of the cursed seal now exposed on her skin. He knew Naruto personally, or so he claimed, and he certainly wasn't Leaf – he didn't seem to back down as he greeted her, an air of lethality still emanating from his all-too-ready pose.

Beads of sweat started forming on the Kunoichi's brow as she went through every farfetched yet possible identity. Her mind thundered, suddenly recalling something, the memory unceremoniously flashing through her head and completely crashing the rest of her mental process.

The something-like-a-trap she felt back at the entry gate, it must have alerted him to her presence beforehand. And she couldn't find anything because there was no cut cord to be left behind… what she so brazenly stepped through was, she now believed, an impossibly thin chakra string.

 _Strong._

The Jonin considered in dread.

 _Knows Naruto._

She was reluctant to continue this line of thought.

 _Proficient with chakra strings._

 _…_

"What in the Sage's-sixth-ass are _you_ doing here?" she called, not bothering to censure the obvious note of surprise in her voice.

Sasori smiled politely at her recognition. Unfazed, he seemed as though he was patiently waiting for her to put the necessary pieces together, as if guiding a child through a string of inevitable conclusions, and having done so at least a dozen times before.

"Artfully put," he replied, "but I'm afraid that's none of your concern."

 _Come on… There must be some room for compromise here…_ Anko thought while gritting her teeth. What the hell was this guy looking for, and how the fuck did he look so unmistakably young?

"Look, Mr. Scorpion," she implored, taking in a hasty breath of dunk, spore-filled air, "You probably know that I used to be Orochimaru's apprentice." she added, the unholy name tasting tart upon her lips. "But I'm not here on his behalf or something, its actually quite the opposite."

Sasori remained silent, letting her finish her ongoing speech. "I'm here because I'm worried his research might be used for… malevolent purposes… Or, more specifically," she said quietly, "to somehow bring him back."

"-Precocious thinking." the artist added, still allowing her to speak her piece.

"As far as I know, you and the snake were as far as can be from best buddies, right? So perhaps we can find some common ground here, and you might even aid me in my cause," she said, a bit too enthusiastically, "or, of course, just leave me for my own devices."

The red scorpion took all of that in, but instead of speaking his answer, his boyish appearance just shook its head.

"Unfortunately, I cannot possibly let you leave here alive, Mitarashi Anko."

Anko squeezed her fists so tight her fingers were losing their color. "Why the hell not?" she asked, a healthy dose of poison creeping into her shaking voiced.

"-For the exact same reason you originally came here." he stated, his index finger raised to point deliberately at the area between her neck and left shoulder. "If Orochimaru were to remain a stranger to our world" he intoned with a poetic cadence, "that _thing_ must not be allowed to exist."

Anko gulped. "The seal is perfectly safe." she called dismissively, her fake bravado so convincing it rekindled some of her own by-gone confidence.

"-Whatever Leaf amateur barred that curse for you," said the boy, "he is going to be less then useless if Orochimaru's plans are even remotely associated with that mark."

So Sasori didn't know it was Naruto's work being used to cage her seal… that was curious.

"Excuses." The Kunoichi retorted, "I guess I should have known, psychos of your kind are always chock full of them."

"-My _kind_?" the redhead asked, seeming actually curious.

"Your basic Kinjutsu loving, ex-Akatsuki fucktards. I should have known it was worthless listening to you, all you ever seek is violence. I dread to think how you've poisoned little Naruto's mind enough that he actually decided to come with you, you twisted dick."

"- _Poisoned his mind_?" the Scorpion actually sounded… amused? "I need not have done any such thing. Why, Konoha itself mishandled that boy to such a degree, he would have probably left on his own when he was old enough."

"Oh!" exclaimed Anko, "So it's the Leaf's fault now?".

"-Who else?" he answered blandly. "This "little Naruto" of yours grew up without any means of emotional support. No family, no caretakers. He was not trained properly, even though he was the village's one and only Jinchuriki, and he was shown to the outside world as a trophy, while inwardly he was only one poorly guarded secret short of a public anathema."

Sasori's words carried a startling weight, they gave the impression that this notion was both some unknown yet obvious consensus, and at the same time a deeply personal and intimate matter.

"Even when he acted out, as children so often do, your entire village ignored him. All because the present situation was somewhat comfortable in the short term, and deciding to suddenly treat this hated boy differently would stir up a mass of interior trouble, forcing your Kage to step on some sore political toes."

"The Third Hokage-" replied Anko, before being sharply and pointedly interrupted.

"Was myopic, to say the least.

What if the Jinchuriki was kidnapped, or targeted? What if Naruto would have gone rogue?"

"-He wouldn't!" the Kunoichi called furiously, her voice hoarse with the sting of sincere outrage.

" _He did._ "

A short, cumbersome silence followed Sasori's echoing words.

"But no matter," the artist appended, "my disciple has already made his choice."

That line sounded suspiciously like a summary to Anko's weary ears. Glaring at the Scorpion, the Jonin proceeded to take off her slit overcoat, dropping it casually to the floor. As she did so, however, she slipped a smoke bomb into her palm, flinging it at the space between her and Sasori's feet.

Anko leapt back, distancing herself from the red headed rogue while amassing as much chakra as she possibly could. When the smoke finally cleared, the artist was standing in the exact same spot as before. Calm and collected, it looked as though he had barely moved… however, the Jonin observed, Sasori was no longer alone.

A few feet next to him, lazily slumping forward, stood a sizable human mannequin. The puppet had a broad stomach, thick arms, and was taller than the rogue by at least a head or two. It sported a bright orange mullet, with the top sides of its scalp shaved cleanly off, and wore a loose cloth tunic over its broad wooden belly.

 _Great_.

Anko hated puppeteers. The fighting style she developed under the Snake Sanin was well suited to dispense of multiple opponents, even when working in tandem. Her wide ranged attacks hailed the battlefield with numerous threats of injury, and with her vast assortment of venoms and toxins it only took one such strike to take most of her potential foes down. Unfortunately, poisons weren't all that effective when it came to inanimate objects.

The Kunoichi darted towards the puppet, feigning an intention to attack. The massive marionette lurched with a mechanical motion before promptly flying to her direction, prepared to meet Anko head on.

The Jonin skidded to a halt and backflipped high into the air, laying her boots on the vertical surface of the pillar besides her. With an abrupt stream of chakra pushing from her feet, she shot towards her true organic target, preferring to strike directly at the source.

Swiftly gliding over the doll, Anko landed a few paces away from Sasori, who didn't even flinch. She quickly performed the hand seals required to fry the bastard with a huge fireball, only to find that she couldn't collect her chakra.

Behind her, the orange haired puppet was crouching, its palms spread tightly across the floor. It somehow siphoned her chakra through the ground, catching her off guard and subverting her attempts at a terminal barbeque.

Anko side stepped with a whirl, the pursuing puppet missing her by a mere inch. She came to stand a distance away from her assailants, intently examining the bloated mannequin. That Jutsu had a familiar ring to it, the Kunoichi was sure. It was one of Orochimaru's underlings… she could remember him from one of her reports. His name was Jirobo, she recalled, and he could suck away an opponent's chakra by hand, or via any patch of earth connecting him to his victim.

 _A prior Sound Shinobi, now a functional human puppet_ , she thought. It seemed Sasori also took some interest in her former master's work.

She decided to manage most of this fight from higher ground, preferably with no actual ground involved. The entire hall was made of stone and some patches of soil, and although there were metal and woodworks scattered about the area, she would do better to not rely on them and stay airborne as much as she possibly could.

Leaping to Sasori's exposed side, she wondered if she could somehow recognize the finger-moving patterns the Scorpion used to trigger that chakra siphoning Jutsu, thus being able to avoid it. She commenced forming hand seals while in the air, and after landing, she carefully inspected Sasori's hands as her coalesced chakra withered away altogether.

There was a distinct twitch of his right middle finger prior to Jirobo slapping the ground. Resolving to test this, she vaulted throughout the battle ground, jumping from one position to the next, trying to avoid contact with the doll as it took every possible chance to sip away her chakra.

There was the twitch again, but this time the puppet wasn't touching the floor – it was surging up at her. About seventy seconds later, another finger-jerk, this time as the doll blocked off a barrage of Anko's well directed shuriken. Seventy more seconds or so past, and another twitch was observed.

The Jonin grimaced. Rolling away from the puppet's next strike, she put a pillar between herself and his fist as she dodged. Mid-roll, Anko stealthily dispensed another serpent, electing to surprise the red-haired puppeteer. She had 42 of them left now.

Timing the attack as accurately as she possibly could, Anko kept Jirobo busy as her summon slithered its way to the artist's flank. At the appropriate moment and a safe distance away, the snake hissed, quickly catching the Scorpion's attention. Its jaws flew wide open, and a kunai knife shot from its oral cavity straight at Sasori's face.

The boy dodged sideways, his arms trailing behind him. Anko turned her gaze to the scene the moment the hissing signal was heard, and, confirming her suspicion, the middle finger twitch appeared again, even while Sasori was dodging.

 _A freakin' decoy_. The random movements of the redhead's fingers had nothing to do with the puppet's actions. More than that, seeing how the act repeated itself even when Sasori's attention was violently wrenched away, one may assume his fingers were on some sort of automatic loop.

The Scorpion probably had the chakra strings going up his sleeves, controlled by some mysterious mechanism Anko could only guess at. _Shit_ , she thought. Not only did she waste a serpent on this, now Sasori was aware that her summons were completely cognizant and could perform elaborate tasks all on their own.

This wasn't good.

Just trying to stretch for time had costed Anko a lot of chakra, as the hefty puppet nicked at her reserves once every few moves. Time wasn't on her side, and Sasori didn't even seem to tire.

She had to press the attack.

A long time ago, Anko heard Hatake Kakashi explain to a troop of fresh Chunin what to do when pursued by a team of hunter-nin. Apparently, the guy spent a portion of his career working for Anbu, making him somewhat qualified to answer their questions.

According to Kakashi, in some situations, keeping to the same course of action was a sure recipe for failure. People often have a hard time alternating between a commonsensical action and a decision that appears strange, even if, logically speaking, they have no other choice. Imagine that you were at a second floor of a secure building, looking out the window, when suddenly the floor cracks open and fire leaps up from the floor below. You can't get to the door, so you probably start looking for the safest place to stand, trying to weather the disaster. But if the fire keeps burning, and you realize, sooner rather than later, that in a few moments you might have no leg to stand on?

The obvious answer is to jump right through the window. That solution is certainly dangerous, but it is much better to fall from a two-story drop than to be burned alive. However, jumping through a window appears insane, and the average mind usually boggles at the thought. In the moment of truth, people mostly keep doing what they deemed sensible beforehand, and die.

In light of this, the Hatake explained that under certain pessimistic conditions, when being persued, it is better to turn on the offensive rather than to keep running, losing strength and chakra. Anko felt this situation merited such a bleak approach. She would spring another surprise on the doll maker, and if not gain a significant advantage, perhaps she'll at least force him to change tactics and introduce some new elements to their situation, for her future self to work with.

Summoning another serpent, the form of the long reptile flew from her shirt sleeve and bound itself around a distant pillar, still connected to her arm. She leaped and swung around the immensely broad pole, using the snake like a jungle vine.

As she came around the bend of the pillar she was flung towards Sasori, letting go of the python and whizzing towards the boy, far too fast for Jirobo to reach her in time. The Scorpion drew out an arm, and a sharp, elongated blade extended from his empty sleeve.

He thrusted the blade right through Anko's torso, her form spasming violently before deflating, and slowly turning into a cluster consisting of five different snakes, who dropped carelessly to the ground from around the outstretched blade.

Sitting on the unseen side of the pillar she just swung around, the real Anko sighed in relief. The Snake Clone Technique was highly useful. When destroyed, her Bunshin still kept a venomous edge, and the independent snakes could still follow orders and even supply her with their experiences when dispelled, much like a Shadow Clone. Orochimaru, back in the day, could even separate and reunite the serpents back to a clone at will.

The summons hissed at Sasori and simultaneously sprung at his feet, attempting to bite him from every possible direction. The artist jumped high, and Anko was sure one of her snakes had managed to nip him by the ankle, but apparently that wasn't the case, as the boy's form kept rising until he planted his feet comfortably on the high ceiling.

A puff of smoke appeared around him, and as it faded the Scorpion was standing next to another doll.

This one seemed even less human, if that was even possible. The ninja had dark skin and hair, a lean frame, and no less than three sets of arms. Looking closely she could see a third eye too, stuck in the middle of his forehead.

This was one of Orochimaru's pets as well, Kidomaru. Not much was known on the spider Shinobi, but she remembered a report claiming that he had some sort of a powerful, long ranged attack.

Sasori wasted no time deploying his new toy, the lower lip of the puppet flapping open with a clank as a stream of sticky, white goo shot downwards out of its gaping mouth. The serpents below were glued firmly to the ground, unable to move a single muscle.

 _Thanks a lot, past Anko._

The Kunoichi leapt back, positioning herself at an equal distance between Jirobo and Sasori's newcomer. However, even as the chakra sucker slumped forward, the artist kept Kidomaru standing squarely at his side.

Anko got it. The fight against Jirobo was progressing smoothly, as far as Sasori was concerned, but Anko had managed to blindsight the redhead twice already. With those extra arms and eye, Kidomaru seemed more than capable of holding a safe perimeter around his master, thus acting as a bodyguard against further reptilian shenanigans.

That, however, gave her an idea.

Anko dashed to the depths of the colossal hall, advancing further away from the entrance. She put everything she could into her speed, aiming to prevent any significant larceny of her chakra. As expected, Jirobo's vast form soon followed, slowly gaining on the Kunoichi, while Kidomaru and the puppet master hung back at a safe distance.

As her boots kept hastily striking the pavement, the Jonin stared at the stout doll in pursuit to her left, blurred afterimages of the hall's pillars zooming over it at a startling pace. In just a few second it will be close enough to intercept her.

It veered sooner than Anko had expected. Cutting in swiftly at the space between two pillars, the wooden Jirobo was intended to strike at her from pretty close range – his right arm missing a rectangular portion on top, from which a cone-like dark blade emerged, glistening with the wet glare of fresh poison.

Anko did not bother to slow down. Though it was true that her poison expertise was pretty much futile when it came to ninja puppets, it did offer a degree of immunity (literally, in this case) to some of their artful gadgetry. This was especially true against dolls of Hidden Sand origins, which relied heavily on toxins.

The two bodies were an inch from a forceful clash. As they turned to face one another, the mannequin endeavored to stab at Anko's throat, his arm jerking forward in a springing mechanical joust. The Jonin blocked by grabbing the blade in her palm, knowing full well this action would inevitably draw blood. She then toughened her grip on the sharp cone, thick red drops sloshing from her hold across the shimmering metal.

With an effecting lurch, twisting her pelvis as she changed directions, the Kunoichi broke the blade in half, holding the top piece in her hand. With her free palm she simultaneously drew another kunai, hurling it towards the ground.

Anko pinned her part of the blade to the floor as well, rising above ground with the force of the jab. Flipping sideways, she came to skillfully pose herself with one foot on top of the broken blade, and the other on the kunai handle jutting from the old, fractured pavement.

Now there was only steel separating her from the fat puppet as she towered over it, barring any access to her chakra. The Jonin prepared an overly extended mock punch, peeking at Sasori and his spider while supposedly reeling back. She could see some sort of elongating brown mass, slowly protruding from Kidomaru's mouth.

The long-ranged Jutsu.

She smiled, closing her eyes in attentive concentration. When a high-pitched whistle broke out behind her, the Kunoichi immediately leapt up, flipping leisurely through the air as she rose high above Jirobo, while trying to keep her gaze on the orange haired puppet below.

The sound of a smash. A bulk of… something long and golden, like an arrow or a spear, shot beneath her and crushed into the chakra thief. She managed to see the doll's severed arm flying off from the force of the collision. Were the Jonin's timing even a little off, those would have been pieces of Anko plummeting through the darkness.

 _One down, two to go…_ she lied to herself optimistically. Still, this _was_ a worthy achievement. Now Anko could concentrate on devising a plan without the fear of quickly losing all of her chakra, which was-

Another whistle. Did Kidomaru use that Jutsu again? But the sound hadn't come from Sasori's direction.

The Jonin turned in dread to the sight of that air-splitting golden mass, which turned around after being conned into taking out Jirobo, and was now homing back on her location. It was indeed a giant arrow, made of some desiccated, compressed mush and shaped into an abstract edge, as hard as dried concrete.

Lunging sideways, she ducked behind a pillar, the heavy arrow barely missing her again. It made its way forward, slightly veering to avoid obvious obstacles, and started turning to face the out-of-breath Jonin. A faint glimmer of a line was visible behind the arrow's tail.

 _Of course it was being puppeteered_ , she thought. _Freaking Red Scorpion._

Anko kept dodging, the honed projectile close on her tail. She expended three more serpents pulling herself away, a mere moment before being struck, and was still unable to shake that thrice-damned technique. Sasori remained passive, barely wasting chakra. It was incredibly unrealistic to think she could possibly keep up.

Dropping from an evasive leap, she landed on the soft earth, kicking up dust. If Anko wanted to finish the Scorpion off, she had to use _that_ technique.

The Twin Snakes Mutual Death Jutsu was a forbidden art, one of those skills the Kunoichi associated with Orochimaru's madness and elected to never use. Of course, being a suicidal technique, there was ever only a single chance to do it, anyway.

If ensnared by the clutches of the Jutsu, both Anko and her opponent would be bitten down and injected with an extremely powerful venom, never to recover. Seeing how Sasori was aiming to kill her, and how slim the possibility of escaping is, the Jonin did not see any other choice.

She found a strange sense of acceptance washing over her. If the artist was right, and she might be used as a pawn in a potential scheme to bring the White Snake back, she should be taken out regardless. "No matter the cost", right? Plus, this was a rare opportunity to, potentially, free Uzumaki Naruto.

It was hard to imagine what things would have been like for her if someone was to kill Orochimaru so early on. She might have resented whoever did it, but she was certain that the alternative Anko would be far better off. If she could do this for the blonde, if she could cut the strings that Sasori had tied around that stupid, endearing boy, she could finally properly thank him for saving her life. It would be, in all fairness, a good way to go.

To tell the truth, the Kunoichi wouldn't even consider such extreme measures if her prospects weren't so… unequivocally grim. Willing to die or not, merely disabling the arrow on her tail would take a great deal of effort.

She needed two snakes to perform the Mutual Death Technique, which meant she had 31 of them left to spare. If she were to summon all of them at the incoming missile, she could deviate it from its course, making sure it would not kill her… probably losing her arm. It was a good thing her suicidal Jutsu required only a single hand, she thought with a grimace.

That high-pitched shriek slashed through the air in front of her, and the Kunoichi knew that this was going to be it. Anko breathed in deeply, steadying her outstretched arm with firm serenity. Glaring forward in cold resolution, she summoned the rest of her serpents.

But nothing happened.

The Kunoichi felt the familiar sensation of abrupt chakra loss, looking down to her feet with gathering dismay. On the floor behind her laid a severed wooden arm, sucking her energy from the ground. She could spot the chakra string trailing behind the stump of its elbow, connecting it to the half-wrecked Jirobo doll slumped on one of the pillars.

It was a ruse. The arrow hadn't really destroyed Jirobo, and the flung arm was discharged on purpose, waiting for the opportune moment to suck all her strength away after she stupidly lowered her guard. Tears formed in the corner of her eyes as she whirled towards the incoming attack, but alas, Anko was far too late.

The arrow struck the Kunoichi right through the chest, taking her entire body with it as its momentum curried them both across the floor. Finally, the projectile crushed into a stone pillar, the ear-splitting sound of the blow drowning out in her ears, as the back of Anko's head smacked against the polished rock.

She hung there for several moments, skewered to a wall like a practice dummy. The Jonin lost feeling in her extremities, a dull ache pooling over her like a thick, morose oil. Anko could barely hear the echoing patter of Sasori's feet as he came to stand before her.

The Scorpion stayed there for a minute or so, staring at her as though her bleeding figure, hung against the wall as it was, was some sort of a framed portrait… an intentional piece of art.

"You fought well" he said, not averting his gaze. "But unfortunately, you failed to truly put yourself in my shoes."

"More often than not", added the doll maker, "when attempting to predict one's rival, one forgets to consider what knowledge or assumptions their opponents may have, and more importantly, how might those differ from their own."

He looked to her eyes curiously, as if waiting for her to nod in understanding.

"With my former spy network, I knew exactly what data the Hidden Leaf had on Sound Shinobi, my freshly acquired Kidomaru included. Keeping in mind the precise extent of your knowledge on my puppets, it was rather easy to simulate your possible lines of thought, and, as soon as you acted, seeing through your ploy."

Anko's mind fumbled through the conversation, slowly losing the ability to register what the artist was saying.

"If that's any consolation", Sasori remarked, "there will come a day when Naruto would thank you for this sacrifice."

By the mention of the blonde's name Anko stirred, a sharp pain shooting through her bones. She looked around nervously, trying to retain some bearing of reality. Her head slouched forward, and glancing at Sasori's feet, she saw a small snake bite adorning his ankle.

That serpent from the clone did get him after all.

"H-how is t-this possible…?" she barely managed to voice, coughing and gurgling blood in a spray of tortured breath.

Sasori seemed to answer, as the Jonin could see his lips moving, but she just wasn't sharp enough to make out the words. Anko rested her eyes, a black curtain darkening the hall around her.

In her last moments on earth, all she could hear was silence.


End file.
